It had the appearance of science, color science , the science of smell , but it was not science : it was ” the big mess “by O. Postel-Vinay

We could welcome at the support items in Postel -Vinay “Research ” and his book ” The big mess , ” there is finally a debate on research policy in France . Analyses, reviews , comparisons , proposals are essential to advance our research system . And that’s desirable. Even should there be debate. Yet we should also approach there is a dispassionate , honest , rational , nuanced by sector, and this is not characteristic of the book Postel – Vinay .
This pamphlet does not deserve in itself an answer. However , in his last press conference , our minister had taken the pitch Postel – Vinay ( PV subsequently ) to justify the recession means of public research calendar , it seems necessary to answer this campaign of denigration our research.

From the book building
It seems that to build a thriller, it must first write the end. To understand the book of PV is to understand what he wants ultimatelyTo show any strength . For all forces , even using only statistics that are useful , even twisting the situation for it to come in his demonstration , even to select only the examples or disciplines that reinforces it, even if forgotten elements major contradict . Everything becomes clear if we know what needs to be murdered , to know and helter -skelter : the state, the Grandes Ecoles , ENA, but also research institutes , status holders , the university authorities or organizations whose members are elected , and of course the unions. From there, he built ” his ” truth.
The thriller begins with the murder directly , that of French research, which too many indicators show the selected state apocalyptic disaster . In the words of a crime reporter, ” the first blow was fatal , but fortunately for the victim , the other two were not ” in the remainder of the book , PV goes up to praise the rapid evolution of our research. But this was only a ruse of wanting to show the writer and his objectivity and preparing his denouement for his eternal salvation , the victim should adopt immediately the Anglo – Saxon and that , in its most simplistic .

Falsification of the level of public research calendar
To show that French research is unproductive , PV begins its strongest argument : it spends far more than others , and France is ahead of all countries for the part of the state budget devoted to research. This is almost correct. But the state budget does not fund all the same things in different countries.
The share of public research in the budget is the addition of civilian research and military research. However, France is, with the United States , the United Kingdom and Spain , one of the few countries that has a very high rate of military research service ( do or not is another debate ): 25 % public funding of research . In addition , all public funds are not civilians in the state budget . Thus, the ” L

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