SUBJECT D: RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Additional
documents are presented by the CSTI for information purposes
as part of – and to encourage – ongoing discussion,
after obtaining the author’s permission whenever necessary.
They do not reflect the opinion of the CSTI or any of its members.
Research and development activity and the innovations
that result are key to maintaining competitiveness in the field
of information technology.
In this respect, our country still benefits
today from the role that was played by the National Centre for
Telecommunications Studies (Centre National d'Etudes des Télécommunications,
or CNET), a public research institution that reported to the former
Telecommunications General Directorate (Direction Générale
des Télécommunications, or DGT).
Part of this role now falls to the cooperative
research networks set up in recent years to promote exchanges
among the main R&D players, in both the public sector (INRIA,
the Telecommunications Schools Group [Groupe des Ecoles des Télécommunications,
or GET], the CNRS, and the like) and private field (business research
labs). These include, in the field of IT, the National Telecommunications
Research Network, the National Software Technology Network, and
the Audiovisual and Multimedia Research and Innovation Network.
There remains the question of understanding
whether, in general, the volume of investment devoted to IT
R&D (taking all funding sources into account, both national
and European) is high enough in our country relative to that of
our competitors.
Similarly, in addition to the structural measures
mentioned above, it is important to have proper management
methods available for the funding that is decided on by the
networks in question, in order to ensure that these function appropriately
with regards to the responsiveness of the markets that they are
supposed to cover.
Particular attention also needs to be paid to
business creation, which constitutes one way that research is
put to good use. Consideration should be given to making such
endeavours more effective, by facilitating support for business
incubators in particular.
In summary, and following on from the different
reports that have already been issued on the subjects of R&D
and innovation, it would be helpful to study the measures to be
taken in order to increase State support for this strategic
high-priority sector and make it more effective.
