Evolution and Recent Aspects of French and European Policies for Technology and Innovation. CES Working Paper, vol. 3, no. 2, 1999

I am delighted to have this opportunity to describe the evolution and the present situation of innovation and science policy in Europe and more particularly in France, to be compared later to the American case. This sort of international comparison is popular in Europe under the terms of “diffusion of best practice” or “benchmarking”. It permits one to introduce some clarity within a complex system whose numerous initiatives reflect European cultural diversity. For a better understanding of these policies, it is useful to know where they come from; so let me describe the transformation of the science, technology, and innovation program, since the war. Indeed, due to my age, I have had the privilege of being a spectator and even, sometimes, an actor in this transformation. It is convenient to describe this evolution as the successive emergence of six layers of policies, each one completing the preceding one. It does not mean that Innovation policy, for example, took the place of Basic Research policy, but that now six policies have to be led simultaneously