New Presidential Scientific Council

On Thursday, December 7, 2023, before an audience of 300 scientists and heads of national research organizations and universities gathered to present his “vision for the future of French research,” the President of the French Republic announced the establishment of a “Presidential Scientific Council” center consisting of eleven high-level scientists representing all disciplines. For Emmanuel Macron, like the previous Scientific Council that supported the executive during the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, this new permanent council will aim to “ Putting science fully at the heart of our decisions “.with one” Freedom of expression and style “This structure is united.” At least once every quarter », He will have the task of assisting the head of state ” To see the developments that we must start thinking about, alerting to imbalances, trying to build new projects, and moving towards disruptive projects independently of public policies. “.

The announcement of this Governing Body follows Gillet’s report submitted to the Minister of Higher Education and Research in June 2023. The fourteen proposals contained in the aforementioned report Aims to maintain ” France in its pioneering role in international research and innovation “Ensure creation” Graduate Science Advisor “. This last post was intended to” Ensuring the permanent representation of science at the highest level in the country “And then” Clarification of the country-level organization of French research and innovation strategy and policy “.

Therefore, the executive authority chose collective representation of science within this new presidential council. Within the latter there are four researchers from the National Center for Scientific Research and other scientists associated with the organization within the units jointly supervised by the Center. In fact, the president and CEO of the National Center for Scientific Research, Antoine Petit, is pleased with “ The National Council for Scientific Research is also well represented within this new advisory structure at the highest level in the country “.

Indeed, we find, in addition to Claire Mathieu, Alain Aspect, physicist who won the CNRS gold medal in 2005 and the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022, Sandra Lavorel, environmental scientist and 2023 CNRS gold medalist, and Pascal Senelart, physicist She received a silver medal from the National Center for Scientific Research. In 2014, all four research directors at the National Center for Scientific Research. Also appearing alongside them are Jean Tirole, 2014 Nobel Prize laureate and professor at the Toulouse School of Economics; Professor Fabrice André, renowned oncologist, Director of Research at Gustave Roussy since 2020; Professor José Alan Sahel, ophthalmologist, who was notably awarded the CNRS Innovation Medal in 2012; Aude Bernheim, a microbiologist at Inserm; Hugo Dominil Coppin, the mathematician, who received the Fields Medal, the highest award in his field, in 2022; Pierre-Paul Zaliot, Head of the Condorcet Campus since 2022 and Professor of Sociology, winner of the Bronze Medal of the National Center for Scientific Research in 2003; Lucien Bailly, historian and member of the Institut de France and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences; Finally, Claudine Terslin, philosopher and member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences.