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Centre national de la recherche scientifique

Motto	French: Dépasser les frontières English: Advancing the Frontiers
Formation	19 October 1939; 79 years ago (1939-10-19)
Type	Governmental organisation
Purpose	Fundamental research
Headquarters	Campus Gérard Mégie, 16th arrondissement of Paris
Official language	French
President	Antoine Petit
Main organ	Comité national de la recherche scientifique
Budget	€3.3 billion[1]
Staff	31,637[2]
Website	www.cnrs.fr

The French National Center for Scientific Research (French: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the largest governmental research organisation in France^[3] and the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.^[4] In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engineers and technical staff, and 7,085 contractual workers.^[2] 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.^[5]

Organization

CNRS operates on the basis of research units, which are of two kinds: "proper units" (UPRs) are operated solely by the CNRS, and "mixed units" (UMRs) are run in association with other institutions, such as universities or INSERM. Members of mixed research units may either be 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"). CNRS also has support units which may for instance supply administrative, computing, library, or engineering services.

In 2016, CNRS counted 952 mixed research units, 32 proper research units, 135 service units, as well as 36 international units.^[2]

The CNRS is divided into 10 national institutes:^[4]

• 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).^[6] 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 finally each class is divided into several pay grades.^[7]

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 performance of the CNRS has been questioned, with calls for wide-ranging reforms. In particular, the effectiveness of the recruitment, compensation, career management, and evaluation procedures have been under scrutiny. Governmental projects include the transformation of the CNRS into an organ allocating support to research projects on an ad hoc basis and the reallocation of CNRS researchers to the universities. Another controversial plan advanced by the government involves breaking up the CNRS into six separate institutes.^[8][9]

Leadership

Alain Fuchs was appointed president on 20 January 2010. His position combines the previous positions of president and director general.

Past presidents

• 
  Claude Fréjacques (1981-1989)


• René Pellat (1989–1992)


• 
  Édouard Brézin (1992–2000)


• Gérard Mégie (2000–2004)


• Bernard Meunier (2004–2006)


• 
  Catherine Bréchignac (2006–2010)

Past directors general

• Jean Coulomb (1957–1962)


• 
  Hubert Curien (1969–1973)


• Robert Chabbal (1976–1980)


• Pierre Papon (1982–1986)


• François Kourilsky (1988–1994)


• Guy Aubert (1994–1997)


• 
  Catherine Bréchignac (1997–2000)


• Geneviève Berger (2000–2003)


• Bernard Larrouturou (2003–2006)


• 
  Arnold Migus (2006–2010)

Some selected CNRS laboratories

• APC laboratory


• Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy


• Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements


• Centre européen de calcul atomique et moléculaire


• Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie


• Institut de l'information scientifique et technique


• Institut de recherche en informatique et systèmes aléatoires


• Institut d'astrophysique de Paris


• Institut de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire


• Institut Jean Nicod


• Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie


• Laboratoire d'Informatique, de Robotique et de Microélectronique de Montpellier


• Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of Systems


• Laboratoire d'Informatique de Paris 6


• Laboratoire d'informatique pour la mécanique et les sciences de l'ingénieur


• Observatoire océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer


• SOLEIL


• Mistrals

See also

• CNRS Gold medal


• Centre pour la communication scientifique directe

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to CNRS.

• Official website


• Review for the history of CNRS


• CNRS Editions


• "The founding of CNRS" (1939), online and analyzed on BibNum [click 'à télécharger' for English version].