Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS )

Abstract Centre national de la recherche scientifique – National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) – was created in October 1939, in the early days of World War II, in order to encourage and to coordinate research at the national level in France. If its origins may be traced as early as the 1870s, the conditions of its founding were met in the late 1930s, during and after the Popular Front coalition, at the initiative of physicist and Nobel Prize winner Jean Perrin. After 1945, it has developed in all scientific fields, becoming in the 1960s and 1970s a top‐leading institution for basic research as well as for research related to the needs of society. Today the CNRS has more than 30 000 scientists, engineers and technicians, and 1200 laboratories, brought together in 10 institutes under the direction of its president, chemist Alain Fuchs. Key Concepts The CNRS is the largest public research organisation in France and the largest basic science agency in Europe. The CNRS has contributed to the emergence of a national scientific policy in France. Valorisation has become a major objective for the CNRS. The CNRS is designed to encourage interdisciplinary research. The mission of the CNRS is to evaluate and carry out all research capable of advancing knowledge and bringing social, cultural, and economic benefits for society.