32 funding of research and technology by local authorities

In 2013, local authorities devoted €1.3 billion to funding research and technology (R&T). This funding went in large part towards property and technology transfer transactions. Regional councils accounted for 68% of this funding, while public establishments for cooperation between local authorities increased their contribution.

In 2013, the R&T budget for local authorities accounted for 8% (€1.35 billion) of all state funding for R&D ¹ (table 32.01), with overseas territorial authorities contributing 2.7%. Between 2012 and 2013, the R&T budget increased markedly, in large part as the result of transactions that fell under the 2007-2013 state-region project contract (contrat de projet état-région – CPER), which accounted for nearly a third of the R&T budget in 2013. Local authorities also devoted €150 million of their R&T budget to supporting competitiveness clusters. This funding was used to help run these clusters or to support projects approved by them, including those financed by the Single Inter-ministerial Fund (Fonds unique interministériel – FUI).

Regional councils were the main source of local funding for R&T (accounting for 68% of the local R&T budget). Between 2011 and 2013, the proportion of funding contributed by municipal councils and public establishments for cooperation between local authorities (établissements publics de coopération intercommunale – EPCI) to the local R&T budget increased by four percentage points, while that provided by departmental councils fell. At municipal and intermunicipal level, EPCIs together accounted for nine tenths of the R&T budget as the vast majority of municipal councils transferred their powers in this area to intermunicipal organisations.

R&T funding was spent first and foremost on property transactions, which accounted for 36% of the R&T budget in the 2011-2013 period. Property transactions even accounted for as much as three quarters of the R&T deals that fell under the CPER. Technology transfer and other forms of support for business innovation absorbed 28% of the R&T budget. 31% of R&T funding went towards public research (excluding property transactions), with 14% used to support R&D projects, 8% spent on laboratory equipment and 9% on supporting researchers. 3% of funding was used to share and promote scientific culture and 2% was spent on broadband networks designed to support research (chart 32.02).

The high levels of funding contributed by regional councils to the R&T budget in 2008 and 2009 (in comparison with their overall budget) fell sharply in 2010 (chart 32.03). R&T expenditure remained virtually stable between 2011 and 2012, but increased sharply between 2012 and 2013, reflecting a corresponding rise in funding in this area as it began to grow once more, particularly with regard to property transactions (whether agreed under the CPER or otherwise).

Mapping R&T budgets by region reveals a certain polarisation. Between 2011 and 2013, five regions contributed on average more than half (52%) of the R&T budget for regional councils within metropolitan France: Île-de-France (17%), Rhône-Alpes (10%), Aquitaine (9%), Pays de la Loire (8%) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (7%).

Regional funding for R&T can also be assessed by studying the amount spent on research as a proportion of the regional economy. R&T expenditure as a proportion of the total expenditure of a particular regional council is compared with regional business enterprise (BERD) and government (GOVERD) expenditure on R&D as a proportion of that region’s GDP. Each region is therefore compared against the national situation (chart 32.04). In 2012, the GERD of metropolitan France accounted for 2.3% of its GDP, while funding for R&T contributed by all regional councils within metropolitan France accounted for 3.1% of their total actual expenditure. In 2012, three of the twenty two regions within metropolitan France – Franche-Comté, Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur – contributed more than the average for metropolitan France, in terms of both funding for R&T and the performance of R&D by businesses and government bodies. Conversely, eight regions fell below the average for metropolitan France for these two indicators.

Laurent Perrain

¹ State funding for R&D includes the budgets of the French government and local authorities, as well as France’s involvement in the European Union’s framework programme for research and technological development.