Investing in the future - Research Europe

French R&D has recently come under the spotlight as a result of the presidential elections. With all main parties pledging more money for national research, there was general agreement that further reform of the nation’s science and technology research interests was needed. Despite frequent accusations of excessive centralisation and inefficiency, France’s research base has much to be proud of. In 2003, French gross domestic expenditure on R&D was 2.18% of GDP, compared to 1.88% for the UK. Under president Jacques Chirac, France was amongst the countries that committed to increasing its R&D expenditure to 3% of GDP by 2010 and, thanks to favourable tax status, France is home to half of all European research centres. At the heart of France’s research strategy is a network of regional clusters – concentrations of research, technology and innovation – known as technopoles. Providing scientific expertise, technical support and business networks, they provide the foundations for expanding existing businesses and encourage the creation of new ones. Of the 47 technopoles, possibly the best known are Sophia Antipolis and Grenoble in Southern France. Like the UK’s clusters, many owe their foundation to the proximity of a university or a corporate R&D centre. However, true to France’s egalitarian roots, a programme in the 1950s and 1960s dispersed the national research institutions and public laboratories that had, until then, been located in Paris, to further strengthen the technopole model.