Good governance in research

For a plurality of research models

Association qualité de la science française

Friday October 13, 9:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Collège de France, free admission without prior registration.

The higher education and research reforms of the last decade have fostered the emergence of a single model of research in France, ultimately institutionalizing it.

Yet the diversity of research systems is an epistemic and didactic reality. Defending the plurality of research models according to the scientific requirements and practices of different disciplines does not mean calling into question the validity of the model that scientific disciplines and certain social science disciplines have developed over the last fifteen years, and which French and European reforms and funding structures have ended up imposing on everyone. On the contrary, recognition of the existence of several models of research organization, evaluation, funding and administration could guarantee better cooperation between different disciplinary fields. Without an understanding of the epistemic and managerial specificities of each discipline, no reform can count on the collegial support of the scientific community. This mutual recognition has been lacking over the past decade. Ignorance of the research models of each discipline has driven the scientific communities apart and created a growing lack of understanding between them. Above all, it has widened the gulf between part of the academic community and the new research administrators, perceived by a majority of their colleagues as a kind of "caste" far removed from the day-to-day problems facing academic researchers in the age of the mass university.

Theday, structured around four sessions, should enable us to confront the epistemic, cultural, didactic and economic reasons and issues, as well as managerial practices, of each research model. Reflection will also focus on evaluation criteria in relation to international standards, and on the need for a new subsidiarity between universities and research organizations.

The aim is to promote dialogue between scientific communities and to raise awareness among the institutions in charge of governing research, by calling on them to reflect collegially on the need to preserve and promote the diversity and plurality of research models.