Scientific research in France has historically been closely tied to the public authorities. During the
French Revolution, the royal universities — deemed too corporatist and too closely associated with the monarchy — were abolished and replaced by public , which were controlled and funded by the State. With the Revolution, the French State began to recognise the importance of universities and higher education.
Napoleon centralised the universities between 1808 and 1815. In 1880, the
Ferry Law established the State’s monopoly over the awarding of university degrees in France: private higher education institutions were thus prohibited from using the term “university.” This restriction remains in effect today, which explains why such institutions are officially referred to as
Catholic institutes, even though the term “Catholic university” has become commonly used. Under the
Third Republic, higher education experienced significant growth: by the end of the 19th century, there were 24,000 students enrolled in faculties (including 9,000 in private Catholic faculties). In 1885, state faculties were granted legal personality and obtained their own budgets by 1890. The republican regime placed great importance on public education — not only to promote scientific progress, but also to transmit such progress to industry. By 1896, France had fifteen universities, the most important being those in
Paris,
Lyon,
Montpellier, and
Aix-en-Provence. In line with the
Law on the Separation of Church and State, universities were secularised, and theology chairs were abolished in 1905. , first holder of the research portfolio in France The State played an active role in establishing the first scientific research centres: in 1901, the Scientific Research Fund () was created, followed in 1915 by the Directorate of Inventions (), in cooperation with the
Ministry of War. In 1917, a short-lived Undersecretariat for Inventions () was established. In 1930, the National Science Fund was created to provide scholarships to researchers — the first public funding scheme for researchers in France. These bodies were not full ministries, but worked in coordination with government services. The State's interest in scientific research became official in spring 1936, with the creation by the Socialist government of
Léon Blum of the Undersecretariat for Scientific Research, entrusted to scientists
Irène Joliot-Curie and
Jean Perrin. Though short-lived, it was followed by the creation of the High Committee for the Coordination of Scientific Research in May 1938, tasked with coordinating all research and scientific work. Finally, in 1939, the
National Centre for Scientific Research (, CNRS) was established to “coordinate the activity of laboratories in order to increase the productivity of scientific research.” After the Second World War, the development of fundamental research was made a national priority, as France was undergoing reconstruction. In the early years of the
Fifth Republic, the research budget increased significantly, reaching 2.2% of GDP in the 1960s. This effort dropped to 1.7% of GDP in the 1970s. Successive governments continued to prioritise fundamental research, though the status of universities — still closely tied to the public authorities — remained largely unchanged. Between 1954 and 1974, the Ministry was responsible for technical progress and atomic energy before being placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Industry until 1995. The
events of May 1968 led to a major overhaul of French universities. The student protests began on 22 March 1968 with the sequestration of the Dean of the
University of Nanterre by students protesting against the ban on visiting female dormitories, as well as expressing opposition to the
Vietnam War. The movement spread rapidly across the country. The
Faure Law restructured the university system, granting autonomy to universities, establishing councils that now included students, and definitively ending the idea of selection at university entrance—only the (the secondary school leaving qualification) was required for admission. In several university cities, faculties declared themselves autonomous and adopted more democratic statutes. In Paris, the
University of Vincennes, founded in autumn 1968, became a stronghold of the political left. Notable figures teaching there included
Gilles Deleuze (who gave a course on
Nihilism and Protest),
Daniel Bensaïd (a seminar on the nature of workers’ States),
Alain Badiou (on
Science and Class Struggle), and
Henri Weber (on
Sino-Soviet relations and
Maoism). Michel Foucault chaired the Department of Philosophy. Amid rivalries among various factions of the French left at the time (Maoists, Trotskyists, Communists), the university of Vincennes — labelled the “
enfant terrible of May ’68” — was ultimately dismantled in 1980. , launched in 1979 as part of the Arianespace programme In 1986, the Devaquet bill, which sought to introduce selection at university level, triggered mass student protests, joined by secondary school pupils. At the time, France was in a period of political cohabitation: Socialist President
François Mitterrand and conservative Prime Minister
Jacques Chirac. President Mitterrand openly opposed the bill, declaring himself "on the same wavelength as the striking students" and expressing admiration for their "maturity." The movement culminated in the
police killing of Malik Oussekine, and the proposed law was subsequently withdrawn. In 1982, the research portfolio was entrusted to the Minister for Industry,
Jean-Pierre Chevènement. Under President François Mitterrand (1981–1995), research was made a national priority, as he declared in January 1982 during the General Assembly on Research ():"In his work on the history of Western capitalism,
Fernand Braudel shows that no society has ever survived unless it was able to bring together in a mysterious alchemy the talents of researchers, the will of politicians, and the enterprising spirit of workers."This policy was reflected in initiatives such as the launch of the
EUREKA project for technological Europe, support for innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises, and backing for projects such as the crewed space station and the and programmes. In 1981, the Industrial Agreements for Training through Research (, or Cifre) were launched. These enable companies to receive financial support for hiring young PhD students whose research work, supervised by a public research laboratory, leads to a doctoral thesis. The programme is still in place today, with 1,500 projects in 2020 and a target, set by the 2021 Research Programming Act, of reaching 2,150 Cifre per year by 2027. In 1992, the responsibilities of Research Minister
Hubert Curien were expanded to include Space. Between 1995 and 1997, the portfolio for space research was transferred to the Minister for Telecommunications and Posts. In 1993, research was placed under the permanent supervision of the Ministry of National Education:
François Fillon became the first “Minister for National Education, Higher Education and Research.” Thereafter, the position was usually held by a delegated minister. In 2005, under President Jacques Chirac, the government founded the Industrial Innovation Agency () with the aim of:"Steering our industrial fabric towards high-tech sectors, the sectors that will generate the jobs of tomorrow... Just as the State did with Airbus, Ariane, and nuclear energy, it is once again giving itself the means to launch major projects for the future."The aim was to raise research spending to 3% of GDP. == Administration ==