Part IV - The reform agenda for recovered sovereignty
18 - University and Access
Long-term technological sovereignty rests on national research capacity. France has excellent academic research but suffers from three structural problems: brain drain through underpayment and underfunding of projects, the gap between research and industry, and the loss of patents to foreign actors. These three problems are resolved simultaneously by a sovereign collaborative model.
Two Distinct Research Regimes
General research benefits from total academic freedom: international cooperation encouraged, open publications, researcher mobility accepted. This is the price of quality; research under tutelage is not cutting-edge research.
Strategic research operates under a distinct regime. Armaments and defence, civil and military nuclear energy, and critical technologies identified by the Commissariat au Plan - sovereign semiconductors, cryptography, military artificial intelligence, space - are subject to defence secrecy. International cooperation is strictly framed, funding is exclusively national and patents remain national property, non-transferable to foreign entities.
National Strategic Research Priorities
Strategic research is not decreed in the abstract: it is organized around concrete priorities identified by the Commissariat au Plan according to the nation's critical dependencies. Two domains merit explicit mention given that their sovereign potential is exceptional and their development insufficiently funded to date.
The first is the algal biofuels sector. Microalgae present oil yields 30 to 120 times higher than terrestrial oilseed crops. They can be produced anywhere across our maritime territories without consuming arable land, without irrigation and without fossil inputs. Their combustion is carbon-neutral: the CO₂ emitted is that captured by photosynthesis during growth. The CEA, IFREMER and several French laboratories have been working on the subject for years, but with dispersed and insufficient funding given the stakes. France possesses the world's largest maritime space. This resource can become a lever for the progressive substitution of fossil fuels in sectors that are difficult to electrify - maritime transport, aviation, heavy goods vehicles, heavy industry. The realistic industrial horizon is 10 to 20 years: which means that massive funding is needed now. This sector is designated as a national strategic research priority, funded through the sovereign collaborative model in direct partnership with energy and transport industrialists.
The second is research on polymetallic sulfides in the volcanic zones of our maritime domain. These hydrothermal deposits - present around underwater volcanic vents in the ZEEs of Wallis-et-Futuna, the Antilles and Saint-Paul and Amsterdam - contain copper, zinc, gold, cobalt and rare earth group metals, with concentrations superior to those of many terrestrial mines currently in operation. France possesses the most geologically favorable zones for their formation, and yet their characterization remains very partial. The sovereign position is unambiguous: massively fund research to obtain precise answers on three fundamental questions - the technical feasibility of extraction at these depths, the environmental impacts on hydrothermal vent ecosystems (among the most fragile and least known on the planet) and the real industrial and productive potential of these deposits. No extraction decision will be taken before obtaining these answers. But allowing other powers to map our seabed in our place - China is investing massively in this domain - would be an irreversible strategic mistake. This research is funded as an absolute priority, in partnership with IFREMER and the BRGM, under coordination of the Commissariat au Plan.
The Sovereign Collaborative Model
The Planning Commission connects relevant research projects with French companies in the sector concerned. The company that finances obtains privileged access to the final patent: at a reduced price, without foreign competition for acquisition if it is the sole funder. If several French companies co-finance, they share access among themselves. This mechanism resolves the three structural problems simultaneously: talent is retained through the funding of their projects, the research-industry gap is bridged by sovereign matchmaking, and patents remain in France.
The Caisse des Dépôts plays the role of safety net: preferential-rate lending if a relevant project lacks private funding. It is not the primary driver; it guarantees that no strategic project remains without funding due to market failure.
Researchers benefit from a 10 to 20% pay increase in the short term: sufficient to retain them while the project demonstrates results on the other issues. The funding of their projects is the most powerful retention lever: a researcher does not leave France for a slightly higher salary if they have here the means to conduct their research. Academic freedom is preserved in this model: private funding confers a right over the final patent, not over the direction of the research.
University and Access
University access operates according to an organic logic rather than fixed quotas. An oversaturated field recruits less; a field under tension recruits as much as it can. Academic filters are maintained in full: volume is adapted, not standards. This is a living system that adapts to the real needs of the national economy rather than a rigid administrative straitjacket.
The grandes écoles are maintained for training: their excellence is real and must not be sacrificed on the altar of egalitarianism. Their tuition is strictly regulated: non-profit, executive salaries controlled, operating costs audited, to make them accessible to deserving French students regardless of their social background. Excellence must not be the privilege of those who can afford 15,000 euros per year in tuition fees.
The Universal Competitive Examination for Access to the Senior Civil Service
The monopoly of ENA and Sciences Po over access to the grands corps de l'État is abolished. A single national competitive examination is open to any French graduate regardless of their school of origin: modeled on the Chinese imperial keju examinations, where merit takes precedence over networks and belonging. The content combines technical skills specific to the targeted corps, French and international general culture, practical problem-solving exercises on concrete cases, and an interview before a diverse panel; not composed exclusively of incumbent senior civil servants.
INSP and Sciences Po may continue to exist as training schools: they lose their implicit monopoly over access to power. An engineer from INSA Lyon, a jurist from the University of Bordeaux, a retraining doctor can access the highest functions of the State if their competence is demonstrated. This is real meritocracy against the appearance of meritocracy.
Pantouflage is resolved by construction: a civil servant who joins the private sector makes a definitive choice. The criteria for access to the civil service mechanically prevent them from returning to public affairs. No additional rule is needed: the architecture of the system produces the desired result without discretionary intervention.