{"id":304,"date":"2010-05-08T21:07:02","date_gmt":"2010-05-08T20:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/open-organization.com\/?p=304"},"modified":"2010-05-08T21:07:02","modified_gmt":"2010-05-08T20:07:02","slug":"french-public-research-is-not-wired-for-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/open-organization.com\/en\/2010\/05\/08\/french-public-research-is-not-wired-for-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"French Public Research is Not Wired for Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Roundtable “SMEs: how to integrate advanced technologies, in partnership with public research” held at the “RDV Carnot” on May 5th and 6th in Lyon, Florin Paun, Deputy Director for Industrial Innovation at ONERA<\/a>, explained why “the French research is not wired for innovation”.<\/p>\n

TRLs<\/h3>\n

After a few provocative remarks, Florin Paun, explained the concept of Technology Readiness Level.\u00a0It is a concept widely used in the aerospace and defense sectors that helps to qualify the level of maturity of a technology.<\/p>\n

“Technology Readiness Level (TRL) is a measure used by some United States government agencies and many of the world’s major companies (and agencies) to assess the maturity of evolving technologies (materials, components, devices, etc.) prior to incorporating that technology into a system or subsystem.” (Wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

French research in the TRL scale<\/h3>\n

As shown in the Figure “TRLs and French research”, TRLs range from 1 to 9.\u00a0TRL 1 is basic research, TRL 2 is applied research, TRL 3 and 4 correspond to a demonstrator in the laboratory, TRL 6 and 7 correspond to a prototype and TRL 9 is a technology ready to be released on the market.<\/p>\n

\"Technology<\/a>

TRLs and French research\u00a0(\u00a9 Florin Paun)<\/p><\/div>\n

The natural (historic) positioning of the vast majority of public research laboratories is located in very low levels of TRL (1 and 2).\u00a0Carnot institutes are located a little higher in the scale of TRL and some of them even reach TRL 4. CETIM<\/a>, repeatedly cited by Florin Paun, is also capable of rising high enough in the TRLs.<\/p>\n

Attracting industry, especially SMEs, \u00a0would require that the public research technologies reach at least TRLs \u00a0of 4 or 5.<\/p>\n

“The techno-push with TRL less than 4 are not relevant to industry.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why stay so low in TRL?<\/h3>\n

When he was studying in a French Grande Ecole, he was always struck by its motto, said Florin Paun.<\/p>\n

“For the Nation, Science and Glory<\/a> … and? Isn’t there something missing? For value, perhaps!?”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is a cultural block, french peolpe are somewhat ashamed to talk about money.<\/p>\n

Need translation<\/h3>\n

Another aspect which was highlighted by Florin Paun is the existence of several imbalances between public research and SMEs.<\/p>\n