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Interview with Alain Fuchs -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ‘As a national organization, CNRS’s mission is to coordinate large academic sites, thus 2011 was also marked by the announcement of a combining its national role with strong local substantial transfer of patents to SMEs. involvement.’ This operation should be placed within the context of the new business relations policy defined by CNRS. In the past, CNRS was focused on the intellectual property battle. We think that the issue lies elsewhere: the challenge is to successfully that we were right: science is in good shape. Secondly, we decided manage the transition from invention to innovation. If we wish re- to take an active part in the process of change affecting higher edu- search to contribute to the reindustrialization of France and to the cation and research. CNRS is a key player and often the catalyst reinforcement of its companies’ technological abilities, we must col- of this change, while remaining a bastion of stability in the French laborate with those companies. We have therefore decided to imple- research landscape. ment a policy of partnerships. Even though some of the inventions that we have patented have 1. Conférence des présidents d’université (Conference of University Presidents). almost reached maturity, they are not being exploited. That is why Higher-Education Institutions Mutualization Agency). (Universities andAgence de mutualisation des universités et établissements2. we have decided to transfer them, under certain conditions, to SME/ SMIs interested in such patents. Hence the announcement, which potentially concerns 1,000 patent families. CNRS’s international policy was highlighted by the opening of an office in Malta, which will cover the Mediterranean region, and by considerably closer ties with the Asian countries. What was the reason for these choices? It is not up to research organizations to make geostrategic choices. We help our researchers to implement collaborations that they ini- tiate in the field with researchers from other countries. The setting up of an office in Malta should be viewed in the context of the launch of the MISTRALS program, which covers the whole Mediterranean Basin. As for Asia, we have been there for a long time, simply because our own researchers work in that part of the world! They identified attrac- tive new areas such as Singapore, and we followed them there. Our strategy is to assist them with their collabo- rations. To do this, we have effective tools at our disposal, the most advanced of which must be the International Joint Units. Then, when there are enough collaborations in a particular area, we can consider opening a perma- nent office to represent our institution in that region. In conclusion, what lessons can be learnt from 2011? First of all, CNRS continues to support scientific research at the highest level, despite tight budgets. We have made choices for the fu- ture, such as the decision to replace retiring staff, and our results show 5 2011 A year at CNRS


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