Feature : Settling in France, a winning choice

If it is to hope to compete with its rivals, a company must make its mark in technology and innovation. So before setting up in an area, investors increasingly insist on high-quality research and development infrastructure (laboratory, education, high-tech and other facilities).

By devoting 2.2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to research (2002), France occupies a select place in the leading group of countries producing knowledge and innovation. It has high-quality higher education (universities and ‘grandes écoles’ [prestigious graduate institutions] ) and a multitude of highly reputed research centres [including the Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) - the national institute of agronomic research; the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM) - the national institute of health and medical research; the Institut de physique du Globe - the Institute of Earth Physics]. With 12,000 research workers, the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) [the national centre for scientific research] is the biggest research body in Europe.

This intellectual "hitting power" has been behind some great technological ventures, like the Ariane rocket, the Airbus and the high speed train (TGV - HST).

In basic research, France occupies some very strong positions in physics and, above all, in mathematics, in which it has, on its own, a quarter of Fields medal winners (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize). Theoretical though it may be, the work of French mathematicians has had - too often forgotten - equally important and very real spin-offs: in medical imaging, in economics, banking and other sectors. Thus the researches of the Palaiseau Centre de mathématiques appliquées (CMAP) [centre for applied mathematics] (in the Paris region) permitted calculation of the optimum form of an artificial crystalline lens, an implant now worn by 20,000 people in Europe and giving them incomparably improved vision.

France is home to numerous international facilities. Straddling the border between France and Switzerland is the particle accelerator complex of the Conseil Européen de Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) - the European nuclear research commission. In 2007 the site will house the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the successor to the Large Electron Positron (LEP), currently the biggest proton accelerator in the world.

Another very ambitious project is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). If France is chosen by the international community, the giant will emerge from the earth in Cadarache (Bouches-du-Rhône) and cost the trifling sum of 10 billion euros over twenty years. In this enormous cauldron, scientists will try to master thermonuclear fusion, the infinite energy of the stars.

In addition to these colossuses, 47 "technopoles" (science and technology parks) bring all the skills of those working in the same field into a network (universities, research centres, businesses, local communities, etc.). Amongst the most famous are Sofia-Antipolis (computing, networking and communications, electronics, health sciences, etc.), Rennes-Atalante (information and communication technologies), Montpellier (health) as well as Optics Valley in Palaiseau, in the suburbs of Paris. Created in 1999, this last centre brings together 50% of France’s potential in the very promising field of optics (especially laser optics), with large public and private laboratories, and companies too such as Alcatel (telecommunications) and Thales (an electronics manufacturer).

France’s successes in the life sciences are less striking. Nonetheless, Pierre Potier, of the Institut de chimie des substances naturelles [Institute of chemistry of natural substances] in Gif-sur-Yvette (in the suburbs of Paris), is behind one of the two currently most effective anti-cancer treatments: Navelbine and Taxotere.

More recently, in 2002, Alain Fischer, a researcher at INSERM, and his team achieved a world first in gene therapy: allowing "bubble" children to come out of their sterile chambers, in which they were previously forced to live in permanent isolation by illness. The launch of a massive plan to fight cancer and the creation of several "cancéropoles" (regional oncology centres) should provide a real boost for this field of research. France is also starting to make up for lost time in the area of micro and nanotechnologies, which is now making considerable strides (see box on Grenoble in the article on centres of competitiveness).

Other measures aim to boost French research and its industrial exploitation. As well as tax incentives, the government is planning to create thirty centres of competitiveness in traditional industries, currently undergoing massive change. The objective is to prepare for the transition to a "knowledge-based" society and economy, as decided at the Lisbon European Council in 2000. To achieve this, France is going to increase public and private spending on research by 70%, raising it from 2.2 % of GDP to 3 % by 2010.