PARIS--At least 6000 French scientists are threatening to resign en masse unless the government makes good on promises to bolster science budgets. The researchers have signed an Internet petition launched last week by top scientists including geneticist Axel Kahn, head of the Cochin Institute of Molecular Genetics in Paris, that demands that the government quickly restore subsidies to research agencies, increase recruiting of young scientists, and hold a summit on the future of French research. The signers have given the government 2 months to "give a strong signal through action, not words, that research is a priority," Kahn says.
The government is taking the threat seriously. Research minister Claudie Haigneré initially criticized the protest, but she later promised to meet soon with petition leaders. Meanwhile, Bernard Larrouturou, the new director of CNRS, France's major research agency, conceded that research budgets would be tight this year. But it would be worse, he noted, if the government hadn't recently agreed to pay the agency nearly $220 million it has been owed since 2002 by the end of next year.
