Science safeguarded in French budget

By Barbara Casassus. Small drop in national research funding but other programmes untouched. Research and higher-education funding have been left largely unchanged in France's new draft budget, despite the country continuing to grapple with its stubbornly high public deficit.
The outline spending plans for 2014, announced yesterday, include a 0.5% increase in the Higher Education and Research Ministry’s spending, to €23.4 billion, or just over €26 billion if contributions from other ministries are included. Although the increase is smaller than the 2.2% Minister Geneviève Fioraso won last year, she stressed that her budget is still the third largest after lower education and defence. More...