Contenu du sommaire : Politique et administration de la recherche.

Management of research in the early 80's. Ever since the early seventies a change in the conception of managerial policies for the research systems of industrialized countries has been observed. Government officiais no longer believe that «the researchers'curiosity » will direct spontaneously research towards attempts to provide a solution to specifie social or economie problems. The result has been an increasing trend towards planning and control of research and innovation procedures. However the awareness is spreading that these efforts have shown their limits and that they involve certain dangers. Consequently, several countries have changed their approach by attempting to arrive at a better balance between central control and a certain autonomy left to those who carry out research. Therefore, new attempts have been recorded with a view to arriving at new decision-making modules for research policies.

Management of the «research function» in France. The French organization of management of research represents an intermediary solution between the German and the British models and approaches in terms of principles and to some extent structure the American model. The author analyses the managerial machinery of research by highlighting its development from 1958 till now.

Management of research in the U.K. The author analyses the British System of managing public research which is characterized by a strong administrative decentralization and a heavy reliance on market forces. The present system shows the following main features : a budget for fundamental research administered by the scientific community, each ministry being responsible for its own applied research budget to be used according to cost - efficiency criteria ; there is no explicit overall research policy, since coordinating facilities are scarce.

Research administration in the federal republic of germany. The author presents the administrative approach to research management in the F.R.G. on an institutional basis. Three typical situations are discussed where public financing is involved : establishments which enjoy an administrative autonomy and the example of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaift ; intervention of public authorities through the federal ministry of Research and Technology ; indirect administrative action both on the federal and regional level. Each case is illustrated by a description of the organizational structures, the machinery for the preparation and taking of decisions, and the implementing procedures.

Research administration in Japan. A detailed description of the various Japanese policy-making bodies is followed by a discussion of how scientific policies are arrived at. Although the general scientific policy and targets are pre-eminently defined by the Council of Science and Techniques, there is no controlling body having its say over the allocation of crédits, the coordination of programmes, and the evaluation of results. Taking the French System as a yardstick, the author concludes that in Japan there is no institution with powers over how research funds are spent.

Research administration in the USSR. The paper presents a generous overview of USSR research administration, stressing two main aspects : programming and the planning of the progress of science and technology, on the one hand, and the managerial potential of Research on the other. Closely linked up with the USSR political and administrative System, research administration exhibits both spectacular achievements and a surprising backwardness in certain areas, although it may be difficult to ascertain respective causes with precision.

Uniyersity research. The author stresses the original link University - CNRS (the National Council of Scientific Research) to indicate that this enables France to call upon an exceptional instrument which would function much better if only the Ministry of Universities were to take a better account than so far of the essential part played by higher educational teaching staff and labs in support of research throughout France. For the past ten years, goverment has shown a bias towards the CNRS which the Ministry of Universities is attempting to overcome by setting up a new research mission within its own terme of reference.

Organization and management of industrial research. General remarks on industrial research targets aiming at innovation, in respect of which Western countries have fallen behind Japan, the author shows how these issues are dealt with in the framework of an industrial multiple concem, such as Creusot-Loire. This paper seems to indicate that industrial research is experiencing a wind of change. Downstream piloting and strategies based exclusively on the concepts of management and marketing have proved insufficient. A novel trend is taking shape which seeks no longer to develop only advanced technological products but also to spearhead traditional areas.

Status reform of research personnel. After indicating the main concerns of the new regulations tending to increase the research staff's sensitivity towards the needs of the country, the authors show that conservation of some fondamental ingredients of the old research System, viz individualism and disciplinary rigidity, is going to repeat its drawbacks. In short, as long as the public authorities go on strengthening centralisai of decision-making to control the growth of the larger organizations, the reform movement in favour of the research System will have little effects.