paris

The French government has announced the creation of a national coordinating committee for research in the life sciences, to be attached to the ministry of national education, research and technology.

It will be chaired by Nicole Le Dourain, professor at the Collège de France in Paris, and will have twenty other members. These will include representatives of the nine public research organizations with interests in life sciences, among them Claude Griscelli, director-general of the biomedical agency INSERM, and Maxime Schwartz, director-general of the Institut Pasteur. Other members will be leading scientists such as the geneticist Jean-Louis Mandel.

The committee's task will be to propose and evaluate programmes coordinated among the research agencies, to advise the ministry on strategy, and to set up debates on research issues such as the organization of genome and ‘post-genome’ research, telemedicine and genetic engineering. The committee will be consultative, but, as well as replying to requests from the ministry, it will issue opinions on subjects of its choosing.