French scientists say discussions in English will create confusion.

French researchers are rebelling against a decision to include foreign experts in policy decisions at the country's National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM).

Beginning 21 June, eight scientists from the UK Medical Research Council and the German Research Foundation will join INSERM's Scientific Council and help evaluate research projects to be funded for the next four years. The council will hear from the center's director, research team leaders, postdoctoral fellows and students in a bid to improve transparency and research quality.

It's unacceptable that directors of INSERM decided, without debate, to impose these changes by a coup de force. , . Jean Kister, National Union of Scientific Research Workers

With 360 laboratories and 6,000 scientists, INSERM, France's primary biomedical research agency, already has a number of foreign advisors, but these external experts can only provide written advice, in accordance with INSERM legal statutes, says researcher Jean Kister, joint secretary general of the National Union of Scientific Research Workers. “It's unacceptable that the directors of INSERM decided, without debate, to impose these changes by a coup de force,” he says.

The researchers are particularly incensed over the decision to hold internal discussions and hearings only in English, a topic already much in discussion in France. Ahead of a long-awaited science reform bill, an editorial in the 2 June Le Figaro criticized the exclusive use of English in scientific communication and said it is harmful for French science. “Competence in English has become a means of social discrimination,” it said. Kister says the union has filed a query to the Paris Administrative Court asking whether the hearings would be illegal if held only in English.

Some researchers are concerned that their English will not be good enough to discuss the more political aspects of science. “While my clumsy English is generally corrected during the editorial process before publication of papers, this kind of discussion with or within the scientific board of INSERM will be without any correction and surely misleading,” says Christian Carpene, a researcher at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse.

INSERM's director general Christian Bréchot says most researchers at INSERM have a good grasp of English, but he is open to allowing a translator to be present at the discussions. He says members of the Scientific Council agree with the new decision. “It's much more valuable [for foreign experts] to directly meet with scientists rather than just reading projects and writing advice,” he says.

Supporters say the changes are a positive development and the unhappy scientific unions represent a small number of scientists. “Some French scientists should stop considering that France has the best-ever research system that everybody in the world envies,” says Jacques Samarut, head of molecular and cellular biology at the University of Lyon.