France risks reaching “a point of no return” if “we continue to cut” research budgets, warns the director of the Pasteur Institute

According to Yasmine Belkaid, guest on France Inter, it has become “easier to make budget cuts for science than for other” sectors.

“France does not invest enough in its research ecosystem”deplores Wednesday October 9 on France Inter Yasmine Belkaid, general director of the Pasteur Institute. After several budget cuts, which she describes as “dangerous”Yasmine Belkaid believes that it “It’s time to wake up“.

According to her, he became “easier to make cuts [budgétaires] for science than for others” sectors. Yasmine Belkaid judge “irresponsible” to consider possible further cuts, particularly in fundamental research. The director of the Pasteur Institute even fears that we will reach “a point of no return in France” if “we continue to cut research that has already been cut beyond what is possible”.

“If we continue to cut research as it is today, France has decided to no longer be a research environment and to no longer be at the table”she denounces. She invites “realize that France has an ecosystem of extraordinary scientists and that we must not abandon this ecosystem”.

After her thesis in France, the researcher went to the United States for nearly 30 years, where she notably directed the Human Immunology Center of the National Institutes of Health. She explains that she made the choice to leave France for career reasons because when she finished her thesis she “did not necessarily have immediate outlets” in France, while the United States “had many possible positions and a chance to explore research and become independent”.

Yasmine Belkaid specifies that the United States has very “quickly understood” the strength that the influx of foreign researchers can represent. “To have people who come from different worlds, different cultures, different ages is extremely powerful”she insists. Yasmine Belkaid therefore considers that “American research has understood that giving people a voice very quickly, regardless of their title or origin” allows you to develop “very fast and very powerful collective intelligence”.

In France, scientists “have fewer and fewer opportunities”There is “very few prospects in France for researchers”regrets the general director of the Pasteur Institute. If she invites French scientists to join her teams, Yasmine Belkaid still advises “to explore and spend a few years traveling, exploring a science elsewhere, opening up to the world”. In fact, she believes that “leaving for the United States or elsewhere enriches us all”. “Having an international career makes us more powerful, more open-minded and makes us more capable of integrating the ideas of others into our creativity”she maintains.