The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest
fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engineers and technical staff, and 7,085 contractual workers.
It is headquartered in Paris and has administrative offices in
Brussels, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore, Washington, D.C.,
Bonn, Moscow,
Tunis,
Johannesburg,
Santiago de Chile,
Israel, and
New Delhi.
From 2009 to 2016, the CNRS was ranked No. 1 worldwide by the
SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR), an international ranking of research-focused institutions, including universities, national research centers, and companies such as
Facebook or
Google. The CNRS ranked No. 2 between 2017 and 2021, then No. 3 in 2022 in the same SIR, after the
Chinese Academy of Sciences and before universities such as
Harvard University,
MIT, or
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
. The CNRS was ranked No. 3 in 2015 and No. 4 in 2017 by the
Nature Index, which measures the largest contributors to papers published in 82 leading journals.
In May 2021, the CNRS ranked No. 2 in the Nature Index, before the
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (german: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. ...
and
Harvard University.
Organization
The CNRS operates on the basis of research units, which are of two kinds: "proper units" (UPRs) are operated solely by the CNRS, and "joint units" (UMRs – ) are run in association with other institutions, such as
universities or
INSERM. Members of joint research units may be either CNRS researchers or university employees (
''maîtres de conférences'' or ''professeurs''). Each research unit has a numeric code attached and is typically headed by a university professor or a CNRS research director. A research unit may be subdivided into research groups ("équipes"). The CNRS also has support units, which may, for instance, supply administrative, computing, library, or engineering services.
In 2016, the CNRS had 952 joint research units, 32 proper research units, 135 service units, and 36 international units.
The CNRS is divided into 10 national institutes:
* Institute of Chemistry (INC)
* Institute of Ecology and Environment (INEE)
* Institute of Physics (INP)
*
Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3)
* Institute of Biological Sciences (INSB)
* Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences (INSHS)
* Institute for Computer Sciences (INS2I)
* Institute for Engineering and Systems Sciences (INSIS)
* Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INSMI)
* Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy (INSU)
The National Committee for Scientific Research, which is in charge of the recruitment and evaluation of researchers, is divided into 47 sections (e.g. section 41 is mathematics, section 7 is computer science and control, and so on). Research groups are affiliated with one primary institute and an optional secondary institute; the researchers themselves belong to one section. For administrative purposes, the CNRS is divided into 18 regional divisions (including four for the Paris region).
Employment
Researchers who are permanent employees of the CNRS are classified in two categories, each subdivided into two or three classes, and each class is divided into several pay grades.
In principle, research directors tend to head research groups, but this is not a general rule (a research scientist can head a group or even a laboratory and some research directors do not head a group).
Employees for support activities include research engineers, studies engineers, assistant engineers and technicians. Contrary to what the name would seem to imply, these can have administrative duties (e.g. a secretary can be "technician", an administrative manager of a laboratory an "assistant engineer").
All permanent support employees are recruited through annual nationwide competitive campaigns. Following a 1983 reform, the candidates selected have the status of civil servants and are part of the public service.
History
The CNRS was created on 19 October 1939 by decree of President
Albert Lebrun. Since 1954, the centre has annually awarded
gold, silver, and bronze medals to French scientists and junior researchers. In 1966, the organisation underwent structural changes, which resulted in the creation of two specialised institutes: the National Astronomy and Geophysics Institute in 1967 (which became the National Institute of Sciences of the Universe in 1985) and the
Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules (IN2P3; English: National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics) in 1971.
The effectiveness of the recruitment, compensation, career management, and evaluation procedures of CNRS have been under scrutiny. Governmental projects include the transformation of the CNRS into an organization allocating support to research projects on an ad hoc basis and the reallocation of CNRS researchers to universities. Another controversial plan advanced by the government involves breaking up the CNRS into six separate institutes. These modifications, which were again proposed in 2021 by ultraliberal "think tanks" such as the Institut Montaigne, have been massively rejected by French scientists, leading to multiple protests.
Leadership
Past presidents
*
Claude Fréjacques Claude may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People and fictional characters
* Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Claude (surname), a list of people
* Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...
(1981–1989)
* René Pellat (1989–1992)
*
Édouard Brézin
Édouard Brézin (; born 1 December 1938 Paris) is a French theoretical physicist. He is professor at Université Paris 6, working at the laboratory for theoretical physics (LPT) of the École Normale Supérieure since 1986.
Biography
Brézin ...
(1992–2000)
* Gérard Mégie (2000–2004)
* Bernard Meunier (2004–2006)
*
Catherine Bréchignac
Catherine Bréchignac (; born 12 June 1946) is a French physicist. She is a commander of the Légion d'honneur, "secrétaire perpétuel honoraire" of the Académie des sciences and former president of the CNRS ("National Centre for Scientific Res ...
(2006–2010)
Past directors general
* Jean Coulomb (1957–1962)
*
Pierre Jacquinot
Pierre Jacquinot (18 January 1910 – 22 September 2002) was a French physicist.
Jacquinot was a PhD student of Aimé Cotton.
He was director of Laboratoire Aimé-Cotton during almost 20 years (1951-1962 and 1969-1978). From 1962 to 1969 he was ...
(1962–1969)
*
Hubert Curien (1969–1973)
* Robert Chabbal (1976–1980)
* Pierre Papon (1982–1986)
* François Kourilsky (1988–1994)
* Guy Aubert (1994–1997)
*
Catherine Bréchignac
Catherine Bréchignac (; born 12 June 1946) is a French physicist. She is a commander of the Légion d'honneur, "secrétaire perpétuel honoraire" of the Académie des sciences and former president of the CNRS ("National Centre for Scientific Res ...
(1997–2000)
* Geneviève Berger (2000–2003)
* Bernard Larrouturou (2003–2006)
*
Arnold Migus
Arnold may refer to:
People
* Arnold (given name), a masculine given name
* Arnold (surname), a German and English surname
Places Australia
* Arnold, Victoria, a small town in the Australian state of Victoria
Canada
* Arnold, Nova Scotia
Uni ...
(2006–2010)
Past and current president director general (CEO)
Alain Fuchs was appointed president on 20 January 2010. His position combined the previous positions of president and director general.
* 2010–2017:
Alain Fuchs
* From 24 October 2017 to 24 January 2018 (interim):
Anne Peyroche
Anne Peyroche, born Anne Marthe Alice Smal, is a French biologist and geneticist. From October 2017 to January 2018, she acted as interim president of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) until fraud allegations were made.
Biograph ...
* Since 24 January 2018:
Antoine Petit
Antoine Petit (23 July 1722 – 21 October 1794) was a French physician, master of Joseph-Ignace Guillotin and Félix Vicq d'Azyr.
Biography
Antoine Petit, born in Orléans, was the son of a tailor.
He received a disciplined education and, a ...
See also
*
CNRS Gold medal
*
CNRS Silver Medal
*CNRS Bronze Medal
*
Centre pour la communication scientifique directe
The Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe (CCSD) is a French organization of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) devoted to the development of the open access repositories HAL, TEL and MediHal, and the web platfo ...
*
Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative
*
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Spanish counterpart to the CNRS
References
External links
*
Review of the history of the CNRSCNRS Editions* "The founding of CNRS" (1939), online and analysed on
BibNum'
lick 'à télécharger' for English version
Lick may refer to:
* Licking, the action of passing the tongue over a surface
Places
* Lick (crater), a crater on the Moon named after James Lick
* 1951 Lick, an asteroid named after James Lick
* Lick Township, Jackson County, Ohio, United State ...
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{{Authority control
1939 establishments in France
Publishing companies of France