French researchers ponder election prospects

The Tour de France traditionally includes a short foray into one of the neighbouring countries. This year, it is set to start from Britain. Similarly, Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the yellow jersey of the poll leader in a French race that is only held every five years, visited London at the beginning of February in order to draw international attention to his campaign. Or to show off his close friendship with the British prime minister. Or maybe to create the impression that Blair is handing on some kind of figurative baton to him, as he is hoping to enter the world stage as Blair is about to leave it. Meanwhile, his main rival, Ségolène Royal, hopes to win back for the Socialist party the office held by François Mitterand from 1981 until 1995. Building on a successful career on the provincial political stage, she has nevertheless and paradoxically managed to present herself as the fresh-faced outsider who is willing to sweep away the old political elite with all its flaws and corrupted manners. But what do these candidates have in store for the French research system, which went through a major crisis and revolt of the researchers during the second term of Jacques Chirac? Following the grassroots revolt of the winter 2003/04, a nationwide political process among the researchers culminated in the estates general at the end of 2004, which agreed on a detailed program for research policy and recommendations for politicians (see Curr. Biol. (2004) 14, R1031 and R491). On top of that, there have been upheavals at the News focus The forthcoming presidential election is causing researchers to look carefully at rival prospects. Michael Gross reports. Ségolène Royal is clearly taking the side of the movement 'Sauvons la Recherche' (SLR), which emerged from the 2003 revolt and is still very influential in the debate over reforms of the research system. In a contribution to be published by the popular science magazine La Recherche, Royal makes clear that she feels the pain of the researchers: " Misunderstood, underfinanced, and mistreated, research is in need of coherence and security, " she writes, using a rhetoric that could have come straight out of an SLR pamphlet. She suggests to increase public spending on research by 10% annually, combined with an initiative to achieve similar increases at the European and at the regional level. Furthermore, she emphasizes the Head to head: …