Sthis cry of alarm had moved the European heads of state. “If we don’t move faster, we’re all going to die!” » launched in March 2024 Philippe Baptiste, then president of the National Center for Space Studies (Cnes), aware that the European Space Agency (ESA) is in danger in the face of aggressive competition from SpaceX and China. A motto that he will be able to apply during his mandate as Minister of Higher Education and Research within the government of François Bayrou, unveiled Monday December 23.
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The space sector expert reports to Élisabeth Borne, Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research and former head of government. Man will not discover his ministry, far from it.
This former head of the strategy and innovation department of the Ministry of National Education from 2013 to 2014 is also, from 2017 to 2019, the chief of staff of the Minister of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, with whom it prefigures the famous Parcoursup platform.
Specialist in artificial intelligence
Doctor in computer science from the University of Technology of Compiègne (Oise) and civil engineer from Mines de Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), this specialist in algorithms and artificial intelligence systematically injects new technologies during his visits to the private at Bouygues, IBM and Total. From 2002 to 2012, he taught computer science at Polytechnique, but it is his research career that keeps him most busy.
ALSO READ Government: François Bayrou defends his casting without getting wet on the meritsAt the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), he created, in 2010, the Institute of Information Sciences and their Interactions, before being appointed, in 2014, Deputy Director General for Science. This allows him to join the board of directors of the National Institute for Research in Digital Sciences and Technologies (Inria) and the high scientific council of the National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research (Onera), two gems public research in France.
In 2021, Philippe Baptiste achieves his Holy Grail: he is appointed president of Cnes. He who dreamed of cosmonauts and made models of the Apollo lunar lander when he was a child can finally devote all his strength to space exploration.
Not afraid of controversy
He decided to modernize this venerable institution by giving more space to start-ups, by promoting innovative systems such as nanosatellites and constellations, without forgetting to support the rise in power of the Space Command, a branch of the army. of air and space which will be installed, from 2019, in the Cnes premises in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), while waiting to have its own building. Military and civilian experts collaborate on a daily basis to defend French interests in orbit.
ALSO READ Éric Lombard, the new strong man of BercyNot afraid of controversy, Philippe Baptiste proposes restricting a founding principle of the ESA: geographical return, according to which each euro invested by a Member State in a European space project gives it the right to a proportional share of the jobs generated.
Its goal: to dynamite the gas factory in which parts of rockets or satellites are produced in the four corners of Europe before being assembled. Too expensive and too complex, compared to SpaceX which concentrates – and optimizes – all of its industrial activities in its factory in Hawthorne, California.
Countering the talent drain
At the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Philippe Baptiste will notably have to ensure the financing of French minds, from their training to their research careers. Faced with the explosion in the budgets of Chinese laboratories, it is even more difficult to stop the flight of talents, now courted in Asia as well as in North America.
ALSO READ New government: Bayrou plays “Barnier bis”
To discover
Kangaroo of the day
Answer
While our researchers, including those awarded major international prizes, have to fight for months to obtain a position as a doctoral student or young researcher in their team in France or Europe, foreign laboratories offer them opportunities. packages difficult to refuse, with millions of dollars.
“I have to fight to obtain a budget of 50,000 euros to try to keep a Nobel Prize here,” a senior research official in France confided to us bitterly a few days ago. Will Philippe Baptiste be able to put stars in the eyes of our researchers? For this to happen, the Bayrou government's rocket must not remain nailed to the ground.
