An advertisement that makes the research teachers shudder. From the walls of Sorbonne, Emmanuel Macron has announced the investment of 100 million euros “additional” to attract foreign researchers to France, to attract researchers in particular Americans attacked by Donald Trump and his administration.
Fighters of billions of dollars in funds, mass layoffs of scientists in federal organizations, open threats against universities … The list has continued in the weeks throughout the Atlantic. “Faced with threats”, “Europe, yes, it must become a shelter,” said Emmanuel Macron outside the conference “Choose Europe for Science” to take the slogan of the platform “Choose France for science” launched by the government last April.
If solidarity through the reception of foreign researchers, especially American, is an essential principle to the eyes of French unions of higher education and research, their contours and the context of its implementation are criticized.
“The concomitance of these ads is shocking”
First stumble? The calendar of this announcement. “I understand that we give ourselves the means to welcome, because it is a necessity, but the researchers are a bit bitter. Temprality makes the announcement difficult to listen,” explains Virginie Saint-James, general secretary of the SuperHerche-Unsa Union.
The university ecosystem saw its budget for the year 2025 to be planned for one billion euros in accordance with the Finance Law adopted in early February. Then, a few days ago, on April 25 by decree, the government again obtained additional 400 million euros to save money.
“The concomitance of these ads is shocking, indecent,” he estimates that Anne Roger, general secretary of Snesup-fs, contacted by BFMTV.com that denounces “two pesos.”
“It’s really derogatory for us,” he said.
For several months, universities have been calling the alarm to the budget “great difficulties” they have found. 60 of 75 universities voted a deficit budget, the world reported in February. In total, 8 billion in higher education and research is missing, according to Snesup-fsu cited by humanity last March.
“One of the largest French universities, Panthéon-Sorbonne, must find 13 million euros in savings,” illustrates the general secretary of Sup ‘reperche-onsa. “Many of my colleagues do not even have the money to bring the jury to the thesis,” he abounds.
The announcement of Emmanuel Macron “is a problem when we are asked the savings in candlelight,” said Virginie Saint-James.
“You can’t pay our own temporary workers”
Beyond the announcement effect, research teachers are concerned about the conditions for receiving these American scientists.
“Can we not even pay our own temporary workers and we try to believe that we will welcome American researchers in good condition?” Question France 24 Olivier Berné, Astrophysical of The CNRS, founder of The Stand-Up for Science France in support of US researchers.
The latter explains that in his team 40% are contractual workers and that in the science fields of the CNRs universe, “approximately a quarter of the researchers are precarious.”
“It is still better to welcome when you are in a good situation. Will American researchers be really interested in a ruin university system?” Through Virginie Saint-James.
In addition to the lack of human resources, while the number of students increases, universities also indicate material difficulties. According to a press release from the SUP CGT-FER, which denounced upstream the somme possession chooses Europe for science, “the university building is located in the phase of accelerated ruin”, “57%” are “energy clients” and “one third of the buildings” are “dilapidated”.
A risk of competence of scientists
Another fear: the competition of US and French researchers. “I don’t know how to coexist people who work in the same project but do not pay them in the same way,” said Snesup-Fsu general.
For example, the University of Aix-Marsille that had positioned itself in early March to become a scientific asylum provides its “Safe Place for Science” to assign an envelope of 600 to 800,000 euros per researcher for three years. In total, it plans to accommodate a total of between 20 and 30 scientists.
“The average salary of an teacher – researcher in France amounts to 63,000 euros gross” per year, specifies the CGT Ferc Sup in its press release.
As of March 20, two days after the launch of the “Choose France For Science for the Government, more than 2,000 researchers alerted in a forum published in Liberation the risk of welcoming” a handful of ‘stars’ “.
“Being up to this moment of planetary balancing cannot consist in usurting the name of ‘defending science’ to accommodate a handful of ‘stars’ in contracts with prestigious names, reproducing the management of scarcity by putting scientists in competition,” they said.
The Secretary General of Snesup-Fsu, Anne Roger, also deplores the individual approach of the initiative nationwide, while “the investigation is collective.” She laments “the idea that excellence would be elsewhere, as if in France we did not have these talents.”
In addition to the repentance that this announcement comes at a time when the sector is experiencing a “chronic snort”, the “almost incessant attacks against academic freedom” are also denounced, remembering controversies about wokism in university.
“On the one hand, we intend to be the great defender of academic freedom and, on the other, the university weighs a little more. We must be aware that even if we are not at the level of the United States, this change towards attacks against freedom also exists in our country,” said CNRS astrophysicist Berné Olivier.
The Secretary General of SNESUP-FSU, Anne Roger, demands to continue protecting “the public research service”, his “independence” and his “freedom.”
Source: BFM TV
