34 the socio-economic objectives of budget allocations devoted to research and development

In 2015, the Inter-ministerial Mission for Research and Higher Education assigned budget allocations worth €13 billion to research and development. Around 80% of these allocations went to research and higher education institutions in the form of public service subsidies. Operating expenditure accounted for 13% (€1.7 billion) of the allocations, while 9% were spent on international programmes and institutions.

The Inter-ministerial Mission for Research and Higher Education (MIRES) brings together in a single budget the majority of resources devoted to the knowledge economy, and its production, distribution or transmission by the French government. Its budget allocations are divided between nine programmes and come from six government departments, accounting for virtually all funding for public research in civil areas (chart 34.01).

In 2015, the budget for research and technological development totalled nearly €13 billion, which was divided between the MIRES’ various institutions. Compared to 2014, the majority of research organisations showed a fall of varying degrees in their budget allocations; although the MENESR intervention credits were essentially the same as their 2014 level, the same was not true of interventions from other government departments (industry and transport). Furthermore, for the 150 programme, the rationalisation of actions 6 to 12 'University research' into programmes by Alliances led to a 6% fall in allocations. The establishments in the Mines Télécom Institute showed an average fall of 14% in MIRES resources.

By analysing these allocations in a number of different ways, it is possible to gain additional information about the budgetary resources put towards research and technological development.

The first approach involves breaking down the budget allocations into broad types of activities (chart 34.02). This method reveals that the largest amount of budget allocations (48%) went to dedicated state research and development (R&D) institutions, primarily state-owned industrial and commercial establishments (EPIC) and state-owned scientific and technological establishments (EPST), in the form of public service subsidies. These recurrent subsidies accounted for 76% of the resources available to EPSTs and 52% of those available to EPICs. Research carried out at higher education institutions received the second largest proportion of budget allocations (29%) in 2015. The institutions that benefited vary in status: universities, major institutions, Grandes Ecoles. Operating expenditure accounted for 13% (€1.7 billion) of budget allocations and funded specific measures by various government departments that formed part of an overarching strategy to support innovation and R&D. The term ‘operating expenditure’ covers a number of different items, including the national competition for the creation of innovative technology companies (i-LAB) and support for competitiveness clusters. Finally, ‘involvement in international organisations’, which covers France’s contribution to various programmes and organisations at European and international level (such as ITER, EUMETSAT and EMBL), accounted for 9% of all budget allocations.

A second approach to budget allocations is to consider the resources allocated in relation to the objectives of the policies being pursued, across all fields (chart 34.03). Using this method, 49% of budget allocations were devoted to fundamental research, most of which was carried out by public R&D organisations and higher education and research institutions. The objectives ‘Incentive credits’ and ‘Major programmes’ accounted for 33% of the budget. They cover funding and support for activities that bring together the public and private sectors, which are generally implemented by the French National Research Agency (ANR) and Bpifrance Financement. Finally, targeted programmes corresponding to specific measures to support a particular field or objective, such as space or civil aeronautical research, accounted for 17% of the budget.

A third approach is to study the breakdown of these budget allocations by socio-economic objective (chart 34.04), making it possible to break down the budget in terms of institutions’ scientific and technological priorities. The 'Life Sciences' objective which covers research into health, agriculture and life sciences, represents 24% of allocations. The 'Mathematics, physics, chemistry' objective represents total budget resources of €1.7bn, or 13% of budget allocations broken down by objective. The 'Human and social sciences, Life in society' objective receives €1.6 billion or around 13% of budget allocations. 'Space' (€1.5 billion) and 'nformation and communication technology and science' (€1.3 billion) each receive a little over 10% of budget allocations. €1 billion of budget allocation went to the 'Industrial production and technology' and 'Energy' objectives while the 'Environment' and 'R&D in aid of developing countries' received €750 million and €350 million respectively.

Claudette-Vincent Nisslé