Excellence and relevance - a new look at assessment

Tuesday Feb. 8, 201, 8h30 to 10h00

ANRT - meeting room, 3rd floor

41 boulevard des Capucines - F75002 Paris

Among the reforms ongoing in the French system of Research and Innovation, the establishment of the National Agency for Assessment of Research and Higher Education (AERES) and the accompanying changes in the national assessment procedures and accompanying measures are certainly noteworthy.

The cultural challenge here, of course, is to strike a reasonable balance between the objectives assigned to public research teams and establishments, viz., training, research, added value and knowledge dissemination…, presupposes that the scientists themselves can and will appropriate these aims.

Assessment itself changes significantly the way the scientific community acts and reacts and pursues one key objective: the search for efficiency in research matters and on all its missions. Prof. Lehmann proposes and throws light on several aspects of these issues. What are the learning phases and how does appropriation take place? How can we best conjugate excellence and relevance? Indeed, how do you ascertain relevance?

Registration before Feb.3, 2011 (places limited) by mail to: futuris@anrt.asso.fr

Contact ANRT FutuRIS – Sophie Claret-Tournier

In charge of the Rencontres: Catherine Raffour, Chargée d’études

41 boulevard des Capucines – F75002 PARIS

Phone: (+33)1 55 35 26 64 or (+33)1 55 35 25 50

www.anrt.asso.fr rubrique FutuRIS / Les rencontres

The changing scene in French research, faced with the challenges in life sciences and health issues: guest speaker André SYROTA, Chairman and CEO of France’s national Institute for medical research (INSERM)

June 9, 2010

In early April 2009, a national alliance for life sciences and health (AVIESAN) saw the day, the presidency of which is assured by Prof. André SYROTA, Chairman and CEO of France’s national Institute for medical research (INSERM). The aim of AVIESAN, recalls Bruno REVELLIN-FALCOZ, NATF Vice-President in his opening address to welcome the guest speaker on behalf of the Academy, is to give biomedical research a higher degree of visibility and better reactivity, both nationally and internationally. Prof. SYROTA, taking the floor, proposes a talk on “The changing scene in French research, faced with the challenges in life sciences and health issues”.

To begin with, Prof SYROTA gives some indications as to the context that led to the creation of AVIENSAN and to some of the projects to hand. First observation: the level of research is excellent in the French national research establishments, both in terms of basic research and in applications to the biomedical fields; we need only refer here to the impact indexes for the ISERRM, CNRS and Institut Pasteur’s publication ratings. The second observation relates to university based research. Here the diagnosis needs to be relativised, for historic reasons mainly but also because there are too many universities (83 in France). Half of INSERM’s means (but the same goes for the CNRS) are distributed among only 5 of the universities (4 Parisian universities and the University of Aix-Marseilles 2), while 80% of INSERM itself is spread out over 12 university sites, the same that benefit from the recent government initiative to create “university campuses”, therefore including the so-termed excellent CHUs (university hospital centres). The last observation is that “the whole world is envious of our possibilities to conduct clinical investigations and this is proving of interest to China, to India …”.

Another prominent feature of the changing scene is in the 4 recommendations made by the High International Committee that assessed INSERM’s strategy. According to this committee’s findings, “France would be advised to unify its research system in life sciences and health – it should set up a single institute to cover these areas; there are serious reasons to review the status of research workers and notably to upgrade their salaries. A transition period will prove necessary for such reforms to be implemented. Lastly, in the framework of France’s national, strategic policies, there is clearly room for a reinforcement of the interfaces between private and public research and to place Europe at the centre of the process.

So what, in essence, is AVIENSAN? It does not have any specific statute. It groups together 6 thematic institutes (that are based in a variety of host establishments, under the acronym ITMOs). These ITMOs cover all the domains of life sciences and health. Among the first and very positive results, notes Prof.SYROTA, we must recognise the highly efficient simplification of the partnerships with industry: a single “one-stop” correspondent replaces the multitude of previous correspondents (for the CNRS, for INSERM, for the Universities …) and this is a tremendous improvement for any industrial partners. Moreover, a strategic committee for health sector industrialists was held at the Elysée Palace in October 2009 to draft a series of resolutions for the future, in particular providing for access by the industrialists to the CNAM epidemiological data bases.

The future will call for a better degree of reactivity faced with the rapid evolution of life sciences, not only because of the deep-rooted conceptual revolutions but also because of the development of “heavy biology”. Among the major issues, so-called personal medical care, knowing as we do that soon we shall have the possibility to access our personal genomes. However, as Prof. SYROTA insists, we have to take account of the public’s sensitivity, that today has become immediate and in phase with current scientific discoveries and announcements. This is a topic that Parliament (through its Office for Assessment of Scientific and Technological decisions – OPECST) has decided to address. “The role of AVIENSAN will consist of identifying, as well as it can, the major issues of the future, with all their consequences on Society, to provide for the means needed by the research community, including the possibility to attract certain research workers back from abroad, to enhance interest for the European Research Area, etc.,” stresses Prof SYROTA.

In terms of public-private partnerships, the idea is to encourage structuring technological projects among the 10 ITMOs. A case in point – a project for retinal stimulation using diamond based implants. Finally, a new structure – Covalliance (an offspring from Alliance) will handle, inter alia, the questions of inter-establishment intellectual property.
To conclude, Prof SYROTA quoted the President of the French republic, at the June 4, 2010 meeting, words that clearly define AVIESAN’s ambitions “This Alliance has the calling to play in France, as does the National Institute for Health (NIH) of the USA, a central role in fixing the national orientations for research in these areas […]”

Summary of the Rencontre by Dominique CHOUCHAN, journalist.