It is important to briefly present the public research environment in France because it differs significantly from that which can be observed in other European countries.

At the national level it is possible to distinguish three major types of institutions involved in the research process:

• In France there are 106 universities (members of the Universities Presidents Conference) which gather most researchers. Due to this aspect, French universities are often small or medium sized compared with other countries. An important milestone in the French higher education system was the adoption in August 2007 of a law granting more autonomy to universities in terms of budget and human resources (Loi sur les libertés et responsabilités des universités – LRU = Law on Freedom and Responsibilities of Universities). Meanwhile, a process of consolidation was undertaken by many universities, either in the form of a PRES (Pole of Research and Higher Education) i.e. a federation of different institutions on a regional basis) or as a merger of several institutions (as it was the case in January 2009 for the university of Strasbourg for instance).

• Grandes Écoles have historically been designed to train engineers for the government service. In 2010 France has around 220 grandes écoles that train students in the fields of engineering, commerce or humanities and have the particularity to recruit their students through competitive exams. Some grandes écoles don’t have any research structures but for others it is an important activity (Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Normale Supérieure for instance).

• Unlike universities and grandes écoles, research organisms have no teaching departments and focus on research. With the exception of the CNRS which works in many subject areas, most organizations have a chosen field like computer sciences (INRIA), life sciences (INSERM), marine sciences (IFREMER)... The size of these organisms is highly variable: the biggest one being the CNRS, structured in ten institutes, which employs some 14,000 scientists and brings together 48 000 researchers in joint research units with universities and other research organisms.

Number of researchers according to institution type and subject (2005).

Les compétences scientifiques et techniques de la France, OST, 2008, p. 73

This distinction in three separate sets is somewhat blurred when one looks at the research structure level. In fact, it is very common for a single laboratory to depend both on one (or more) university and on a research organism, and possibly also on a grande école. The human resources and financial income of the laboratory come from these different sources, but the work is conducted in joint teams. In this case the laboratory is called a “joint research unit” (Unité Mixte de Recherche – UMR).

One should finally mention the three public bodies that play a major role in the consolidation of the French academic research at the national level in terms of:

• strategy with the Ministry of Higher Education and Research

• funding with the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche - National Research Agency)

• assessment with the AERES (Agence d’Evaluation de la Recherche et de l’Enseignement Supérieur - Research and Higher Education Evaluation Agency).