Summary

Chapter 1. Introduction. Some notes on the French and Swedish research systems.

Organisation of the work

Some notes on the French research system

Some notes on the Swedish system

A note on the European programmes

Summarising remarks. Comparison with the U.S.

Chapter 2. Current exchange of post-docs between France and Sweden

French post-docs

Swedish post-docs

Chapter 3. Examples of research contacts between French and Swedish Universities

Research contacts of Swedish universities with France

Contacts within the context of European research programmes

Chapter 4. Examples of research contacts between French and Swedish governmental
agencies and private companies

Chapter 5. Concluding remarks

APPENDICES

Appendix 1. Acronyms of organisations mentioned in this report. Those which have been contacted
are indicated wih a *.

Appendix 2. Tables of French post-docs in Sweden and Swedish post-docs in France

Appendix 3. CNRS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Some statistics from
“Rapport d’activité 1999” and “Rapport sur les Etudes doctorales”, March 2000

Appendix 4. French “Coopérants” in Sweden 2001.

Appendix 5. Questionnaire sent to French and Swedish post-docs and comments from French
post-docs studying in Sweden.

Appendix 6. WENNER-GREN Distinguished Lecturers

Appendix 7. Examples of research contacts between Swedish and French universities.

Appendix 8. Research contacts between the Swedish Institute for Metals Research and corresponding
French organisations, in particular in the context of European research programmes.

Appendix 9. Main Swedish R&D organisations

Appendix 10. List of organisations / persons contacted during the preparation of this report.

Appendix 11. SSF Programmes having contacts with French research
 

As in all other industrialised countries, a growing number of students in France and Sweden continue their postgraduate studies with a 1-2 years post-doc period, usually abroad.

According to recent statistics from CNRS this applied to some 2000 (of which 80 % were French citizens) of the 10 000 students that obtained a Ph.D. in 1999 in France. Of these, 1300 went abroad principally to North America (43%) and the European Union (50%). The latter percentage has increased during the latest years in comparison with that of those going to the U.S. According to our findings some 15-20 French post-docs go to Sweden annually, that is about 3% of those going to EU countries. As yet, the “hard” sciences dominate among the French visitors, who arrange the financing of their stay individually.

We have less complete statistics from Sweden and have limited ourselves to the 460 Swedish post-docs for which STINT and the Wenner-Gren Foundations financed studies abroad during the period 1992-2000. Also among the Swedes the US dominate as host country receiving 52% of the Swedish post-docs while 16% went to Great Britain, Canada and Australia, which further underlines the predominance of the English speaking nations. Of the STINT grantees 4% went to France, of the Wenner-Gren grantees the corresponding figure is 8%. The Swedish financiers of post-docs have arranged for a better balance between the different disciplines with 25% of those going to France being humanists or social scientists. Both for the French in Sweden and the Swedes in France about 40 % are women.

Of the French post-docs in Sweden 80% have answered a simple questionnaire according to which they are generally very pleased with the working conditions (excellent facilities, informal, non-hierarchial atmosphere). In their comments (Appendix 5) they point out that French students generally are not well informed of  the excellent standards of Swedish research and that there is room for improvement on this point. In a few answers it is noted that more should be done to accommodate French students to the Swedish way of life. Also the Swedish students in France, who are pleased with their studies, would like to have more help in this respect.
In a few cases previous experience of Sweden as “coopérant”, as part of bilateral agreement or in the context of European programmes, has played a role for the French Ph.D.s choosing Sweden, but quite often it is the result of some spontaneous personal decision.
The post-docs that we have found are at one of the major universities with 70% of the Swedes  (having answered our questionnaire) being in Paris and about the same percentage of the French in Sweden being in Stockholm, Uppsala and Lund.

Present and future European programmes (in particular for stimulating mobility) will certainly have a positive effect also on the exchange of post-docs between France and Sweden; we have found many cases (examples are given in Appendix 7) of well-established French-Swedish research collaborations often stimulated by the net-working created by EU or ESF programmes. There are also some 400 undergraduate French ERASMUS students in Sweden and vice-versa – not least in social sciences and business administration – and this will certainly have positive effects on future research exchanges  particularly in the “soft” sciences.
Some suggestions on actions that could be considered for further stimulating research contacts between France and Sweden are given in the final chapter.

The information reported in this survey has been obtained by contacting a number of organisations and persons whose names and addresses are given in Appendix 9 and 10.

As in all industrial countries, extensive international collaboration has been an important feature of the greatly increasing activities in the area of R&D and higher education during the latest decades in France and in Sweden. It is a natural consequence of this that many new research contacts have been established in recent years between our two countries as exemplified in this report.

Contacts in  fundamental research

While some special initiatives, such as the creation of the AFSR and the earlier CNRS / NFR agreement played an important role to rebuild contacts after the war, all kinds of informal contacts between French and Swedish research groups are now just a normal part of their activities, to a large extent stimulated by European activities such as the EU framework and SOCRATES/ERASMUS programmes as well as by the the research coordinated by ESF. There are also an increasing number of informal networks such as the “European Consortium for Sociological Research”. However, it is felt that agreements such as those between CNRS/Vetenskapsrådet (HSFR) and INSERM/Vetenskapsrådet (MFR) are still useful and can be particularly helpful for  overcoming administrative and cultural obstacles.

The post-docs we have found are virtually all in the “hard” sciences, medicine, natural sciences, technology. This is not surprising, since post-doc as part of the research education is much more established in these fields of science than in social and humanistic sciences. The research contacts in the latter areas are mainly between senior researchers, and it is evident from the discussions with representative for Riksbankens jubileumsfond and FAS (Prof Robert Eriksson) that, among the European nations, there are many more contacts with Great Britain and Germany than with France (this is one of the reasons why the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has a special programme for supporting young law students complementing their studies in France).

To judge from the many students of business administration and social sciences that now take part in the Erasmus exchange programme the French-Swedish contacts in social sciences (including research) are likely to be much strenghtened during the next few years.

It is good news that the French students who make their post-doc in Sweden generally are very pleased with their stay as demonstrated by our survey. However, the number (albeit somewhat uncertain) of around 15-20  per year is small when compared with the French or Swedish Ph.D.s going to the U.S. or to Great Britain. Here there is scope for improvement and this would be much facilitated if the current discussion on the inclusion of the post-doc period as a natural part of research education leads to similar solutions in the European nations and particularly in France and Sweden.

Contacts in applied research (state agencies, industry)

Other research contacts that we have found in preparing the report will certainly also have an effect on the future exchange of post-docs, and some complementary comments will be given on this point.
 As illustrated in Table 1 there are many research intensive areas in which the state is heavily engaged and in which the collaboration between the various corresponding agencies could be strenghtened, in particular where the France and Sweden have similar views as regards possible future European initiatives. Another area where more collaboration could be useful is the stimulation of entrepreneurship and regional development as managed by VINNOVA/NUTEK and ANVAR (patents, rules for university/company relations, taxes…). There are also areas where there are similar problems e.g. education in a multicultural society, but where it appears that the two countries have adopted different approaches.
As regards collaboration in the industrially oriented research this will develop as a result of the activities of the different companies. On this point it could be of interest to discuss the rather different conditions for industries that will carry out collaborative research with universities (compare CIFRE with the corresponding Swedish “industridoktorander”) or which participate in specially designed continuous education.

Some suggestions

In order to further strengthen French Swedish research collaboration a discussion between CNRS with its new President and General Director, and the Swedish counterparts could be useful. In such a meeting – or in more specialised meetings on a lower level – the following topics could deserve special attention.
European research.  In a recent article in Le Monde ( 2001-06-20) Frédéric Sgard expresses his disappointment with the lukewarm interest of the EU nations to develop a vigorous European Research Community. The apparent conflicts between resources spent on national and European projects/programmes as well as between the many organisations having ambitions to direct European research could be worth discussing.
Post-docs. How should the post-doc studies be organised and financed so as to facilitate an increased European exchange? Particular attention should be paid to the comments given in the answers we have obtained to our enquête.
Humanities and social sciences. As mentioned above there are  good reasons to discuss actions to stimulate French Swedish research contacts in these areas including post-docs..
Industry-university collaboration. The increasingly transnational industry-university collaboration would profit from a better harmonisation of national rules for such collaborative work, which  to an increasing extent will include post-docs.
Collaboration in special programmes. On a more concrete level  more detailed collaborative research could be discussed within specific areas, for instance where governmental programmes have many similarities, such as in the areas of environment/energy/transportation/ or in programmes to stimulate the new technologies IT and biotechnology. This could include one of the programmes or a group of programmes sponsored by the Foundation of strategic research.
 

Stockholm, May 2001