45 France's position in the 7th RTD Framework Programme (FP7)

By receiving 11.5% of the contributions allocated by the European Union through FP7, France is the third-biggest beneficiary after Germany and the United Kingdom. Nuclear research, space and aeronautics are France's highest performing areas. However, its position is being eroded, especially due to the weak engagement of French researchers.

In the course of the European Union FP7 from 2007 to 2013, French participants received €5.1bn or around 11.5% of all this programme's funding. France is therefore in third place among the recipient countries, behind Germany (15.9% of funding) and the United Kingdom (15.5%) (chart 45.01).

In the field of Nuclear research, France was in first place, participating in 15.4% of research groups and receiving 23.3% of funding (chart 45.02a and chart 45.02b). France was also the leader in the Space sector (12.3% of participations and 22.5% of funding) and in second position behind Germany in Transport (including Aeronautics) (13.3% of participations and 15% of funding). In these 3 sectors, France has industries that are among the world leaders. However, the country is less well represented in programmes linked with Agrifood (about 8% of funding and participations), Energy (8% of participations and 9.3% of funding) and the Environment (7.3% and 7.7%), even though its academic teams hold a strong position in Europe in terms of publications, and its industry is also highly regarded.

In addition, in 2012 15.4% of R&D personnel in the EU was concentrated in France, and the country accounted for 17.3% of R&D expenditure. As second net contributor to the European Union budget, France's contribution is 17%. Thus by receiving only 11.3% of contributions for research projects in which French teams were participating, France's position in FP7 seems to be falling back regarding both national research and innovation potential and the country's contribution to the European budget.

Throughout the framework programmes, France's position has declined. French teams were recipients of 13.5% of the funds granted during FP5 (1999-2002), 13% in FP6 (2002-2006) and only 11.5% in FP7 (2007-2013) (chart 45.03a and chart 45.03b). 2013 was the year that marked a low point, receiving only 10.1% of grants awarded. Also, the French coordination rate, which slumped from 11.8% in 2007 to 9.1% in 2013, was both a symptom of the problem and also gradually became an aggravating factor for the French position by contributing to a decrease in the visibility of French participants as they gradually became less associated with FP projects carried out.

The successive enlargements of the European Union cannot account for France's decline. The share of grants taken by the 10 main recipient countries in FP7 has remained roughly the same since FP5 (about 80%).

French teams respond less frequently to FP calls for proposals compared to their German or British counterparts (chart 45.04). France accounts for 8% of total requests for research support, against 13% for the United Kingdom and Germany. The high success rate of projects involving French contributors (25.2% for France compared with 21.8% on average for all participating countries) does not compensate for this shortfall in applications.

In addition, the dynamic nature of national proposals of funding for projects (French National Research Agency (Agence nationale de la recherche - ANR), Investments for the Future Programme, Single Inter-ministerial Fund), especially since 2011, may have distanced French researchers from European projects.

Despite this worsening position, France is represented in 30% of FP7 projects. Germany and France have a special partnership. Throughout the framework programmes, France and Germany have been associated in 4,037 projects or 71.5% of all projects involving a French partner (chart 45.05).

Zoé Friant & Frédéric Laurent