France gears up for a major innovation push

By Dr Alexandre Navarre

Over the past year, I have been studying the French research system as part of my responsibilities establishing one of 14 tech transfer operations that now span the country. Like Canada, France carries out high quality research but its government realizes that its socio-economic impact is not in accordance with that output. In response, a major program was launched in 2010 to invigorate various linkages in the French research ecosystem.

The SATT (Sociétés d'accélération de transfert technologique) program has tapped into a major loan contracted by the state called the Grand Emprunt. Part of it ( €22 billion over 10 years) is referred to as Programme Investissement d'Avenir (PIA), and was set aside to enhance the efficiency of research activities and encourage public-private partnerships. With more than 50% of the workforce in the public sector, such programs take on considerable profile.

Industry has responded favourably to some of the larger partnership programs, such as the creation of major Institutes for joint pre-competitive research (eight IRT— Instituts de recherche technologique and nine ITE — Instituts en transition énergétique). They have attracted major players in their respective domains. Not unlike the Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) or Quebec's CRIAQ program for aerospace, attracting smaller firms is part of the challenge to create dynamic specialized clusters. Domains cover aerospace, railway management, numeric engineering, nanotechnology, marine energy, grid management, etc. They hold potential partnership opportunities for equivalent Canadian research clusters.

Universities have also benefited from the PIA. Similar to the Canada Foundation for Innovation, a number of programs were created to fund specialized equipment and scholarships for masters, PhDs and post-docs. In France, the relative number of post-secondary graduates per university researcher is relatively small. Funding for research tends to go towards the creation or maintenance of full-time positions — a situation that was exacerbated by the successive reductions of A-base budgets.

The PIA, however, created a matrix of programs. Some of them overlap and there are considerable efforts deployed to create linkages between them. Universities have also been enticed to engage in the systemic development of specific domains of expertise and excellence, a move that has been met with varying degrees of acceptance.

In addition, a new law, Loi sur l'Enseignement supérieur et la recherche (LESR), was passed in July 2013, leading to the reorganization of universities under a new umbrella named Communité d'universités et d'établissements (ComUE). The French state intends to devolve financial management responsibilities to universities that has so far only been implemented on a few sites.

While university structures are in a rationalization mode under the ComUE initiative, researchers have not been party to such changes impacting their daily affairs. In the French context, researchers are public servants. Only recently have they been asked to meet specific objectives, at least those benefitting from research grants. The LESR gives powers and responsibilities to universities in matters that were not previously considered such as innovation.

Regions engaged

Another law on regional decentralization is now being legislated. While education is a national jurisdiction, research and innovation calls for the regions to participate and provide significant financing. There is also pressure to obtain EEC grants (FEDER) since France is in a deficit with respect to its relative percentage allocation of European research funding.

As a result, SATTs have been formed and endowed with substantial funding to carry on proof-of-principle, early-stage seed development and facilitate early-stage start-up financing. They are coupled to an existing network of incubators created under the Loi Allègre in 1999. There are now 14 SATTs in France with over 300 professionals. Structured as private entities, they have been given exclusive first right to exploit any intellectual property generated by their academic partners.

The bulk of the funding is coming through the Caisse de depot that sits on each of the SATT boards and carries much influence, together with the Ministry of Education and Research (MESR), the Ministry of industry (DIRECCTE) and Bpifrance — the equivalent to Canada's Business Development Bank. This initiative is just over two years old and some of the SATTs are less than six months old, so milestones (every three years) are still difficult to evaluate.

The initial premise that SATTs would become self-sufficient after 10 years has been toned down. The real objective is social and economic impact. This is where the regional aspect is key and sometimes conflicts with the potential for technological development, especially in the medical and therapeutic fields.

French and Canadian governments have similar approaches to remedy the innovation deficit in creating commissions and committees, about once a year, all of high caliber but with little effect. In Canada, the Jenkins panel has had some impact on policies but with little financing impact. In France, the Tambourin Beylat report was partly contested and a new Commission on Innovation headed by a triumvirate of ministers was recently established in response to a critical OECD report on France's innovation performance.

The impact of recent initiatives to attain better scores and capture the economic value of academic research is a must. As an example, a new university was just created — Université Paris-Saclay — bringing together 22 research institutions, including the famous oligarchic Ecole Polytechnique. This will represent close to 25% of French research and such initiatives will contribute to an enhanced international image.

The onus is on SATTs as well as industry, including industry clusters to collaborate through a mix of market pull and technology push to translate technology both ways while rallying academic researchers to that end.

The challenge is therefore not so different in France and Canada. France is catching up and this should provide opportunities for consortia creation and for Canadian Business-Led-NCEs and clusters to partner on strategic issues.

Dr Alexandre Navarre is board president and CEO of the SATT Grand Centre. In Canada, he has worked for the federal government, university administration (McGill Univ and Western Univ) and industry (Dow Chemicals).