France Doubles Funding for R&D and Industrial Innovation

The U.S. can watch as another country significantly expands its investments in innovation. This time it's France, as newly appointed Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin last month announced that the national government will double its funding from €500 million to €1 billion for the Industrial Innovation Agency (IIA), and give €350 million to the National Research Agency (ANR).

The recently created Industrial Innovation Agency, announced earlier this year by President Jacques Chirac, was set up to fund large national champions in industrial R&D and technology development programs. Prime Minister de Villepin on June 18 stated that the funding to the IIA would back commercial projects in the fields of solar energy, nanotechnology, biotechnology and bio-fuels, according to the European Business New. Companies from other European countries are expected to be eligible for funding along with French firms.

The ANR, announced by Prime Minister Raffarin in 2004, was created to support the development of basic and applied research, innovation and partnership between the public and private sectors, and contribute to the transfer of technology produced by publicly funded research to the commercial world. The ANR will fund research projects selected by competitive peer review on the basis of scientific and technical excellence criteria, thus introducing a new approach in how research is funded in France.

However, the exact statutes and mission of the ANR will be defined in the Research Guidance and Planning Bill expected to be presented by the Government by the end of the year. The ANR Public Interest Group, a temporary structure, has been established in the interim to distribute the ANR’s budget.

More information on ANR is available at http://www.gip-anr.fr/en/index.htm