Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

The CNRS has over 80 years experience of basic research, exploring living creatures, space, materials and human societies and can leverage all fields of science to understand current global challenges in all their complexity, in conjunction with organisations in the field. The CNRS encourages and supports the application of research results to transform them into concrete and long-lasting social and technological innovations that benefit both companies and society.

The CNRS is a strong advocate of a knowledge-focused society, and an open science that is deeply rooted in its era. It promotes the wide circulation of knowledge and scientific culture, and supports decision makers to develop public policy. The CNRS is the only research organisation in France that brings together all the scientific disciplines under its aegis. Its strength is having specialists working in complex areas, who understand their subjects in the greatest depth. Interdisciplinarity means bringing these experts together to work on a joint project. The vision underpinning this approach is to explore new scientific questions, which requires cooperation between disciplines, and to set out global strategies to tackle the most pressing challenges to science.

These are by definition horizontal and interdisciplinary, as is the case with climate change, health and the environment, and educational inequality. This is why the CNRS encourages the sciences to come together in a dialogue that also includes stakeholders from wider society. To perform its role, the CNRS follows its own national charter on ethics for research professions which clearly sets out the criteria for a rigorous scientific method with integrity. This can be applied in particular when working in national and international partnerships.