paris

The French ministry of national education, research and technology has quietly abandoned plans for a decree to reform the statutes of the country'smain research agency, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

The ministry, while officially continuing to refuse researchers' demands for a national debate, has in parallel now requested a parliamentiary inquiry into the mobility of researchers and into ways of improving links between the public research agencies and the universities.

The decree to reform the CNRS has been a major focus for strong opposition in the research community to plans by Claude Allègre, the science minister, for a profound reform of the country'sresearch system (see Nature 396, 607; 1998). Scientists complain that it would transfer excessive responsibility for the work of CNRS laboratories to the universities, while failing to address fundamental problems, such as the weakness of university research.

Vincent Courtillot, a former principal adviser to Allègre who was recently appointed director general of the ministry, discreetly announced the abandonment of the CNRS decree last week in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde. The format of a decree was too rigid, he said, adding that reform of the CNRS would await proposals from the organization itself “within three to four months”.

The conciliatory tone of Courtillot'spolicy outline, in sharp contrast to the previous hardline stance of the ministry, has been interpreted by observers as indicating that the ministry is keen to seek a way out of the current deadlock over reforms. “It marks a substantial change on the ministry'spart,” says one member of the CNRS board of directors.

The deadlock culminated in an unprecedented meeting in Paris just before Christmas of the 800-member National Committee for Scientific Research, the ‘parliament’ of the country'sscientists, which plays a major role in evaluating laboratories and administering recruitment. The meeting attacked the reforms as “ill conceived” and overwhelmingly rejected the way the ministry has tried to impose them on the scientific community with minimum consultation.

This month, the presidents of the 40 sections of the national committee issued a statement arguing that a national debate was essential. Courtillot maintains that such a debate is not on the cards, arguing that, had the government wanted one, it would have organized it on coming into power 18 months ago.

But one member of the CNRS board of directors says this amounts to “saving face”. Indeed, the ministry has asked for a parliamentary inquiry into research issues that is expected to lead to concrete proposals. The ministry has recently come under fire from its own ranks, with the research committee of the ruling Socialist party supporting calls for wider consultation between the ministry and the scientific community.

Depending on the inquiry'sremit, it might well satisfy researchers' demands, says Henri Edouard Audier, a member of the national board of SNES, the main trade union representing researchers.

At the same time, Audier laments that a procedure of consultation could have already been completed had it been under way from the outset.