France Creating NSF-like Agency

One Goal would see Science Share of GDP Surpassing US before 2010.

Not to be outdone by its European neighbor across the Channel (see story above), the French government announced at the end of June it will create a national research agency modelled after the National Science Foundation, according to The Scientist, the European Commission and several French news reports. While the budget for the new government agency will not be released until November, the press reports indicate an additional $1.23 billion (US) could be available for research grants in 2005.

While recent public expenditures have been below average for the European Union, France has set a goal to raise the percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that is spent on science to 3.0 percent by 2010. In 2002, science spending represented 2.2 percent of the French GDP. Science in the U.S., for comparison, has seen its share of the GDP decline in each of the past three years to approximately 2.6 percent.

To achieve its goal, French research spending will need to average an annual real growth rate of 10 percent, according to a July 2 article in The Scientist. The new national research agency could play a major role in managing that growth, as it is expected to serve as a merit-review-based grant making organization, similar to the National Science Foundation in the U.S.