The research programming bill (LPR in French) aims to boost French research and concerns financing and organising research and higher education. The objectives of this law, scheduled to run over 7 years, are:
- To bring France to the forefront of global scientific research to meet the challenges of tomorrow;
- To strengthen the attractiveness of scientific careers;
- To disseminate research in society and the economic world;
- To simplify the daily life of staff and the running of laboratories.
The LPR, whose work began in February 2019, was promulgated in December 2020 and has resulted in several measures for which all the implementing decrees have not yet been published.
Among the “human resources” measures of the LPR, revaluating public research salaries is one of the first effective measures. This consists in increasing the grants of research staff to unify the compensation schemes of Higher Education and Research by 2027, in order to align them with the bonuses of comparable sectors in the Civil Service.
- The research and higher education bonus is increased as of January 1, 2021 from € 1,260 to € 1,840 per year for university professors and from € 1,260 to € 2,350 for lecturers.
- The higher education bonus awarded in particular to PrAg / PRCE increases from € 1,260 to € 1,546.
- The research bonus increases from € 990 to € 1,620 per year for research directors and from € 990 to € 2,220 for research officers.
The effects of these compensation increases for the institution’s staff will be effective on the May payroll, with retroactive effect to 1 January 2021.
Among the other “HR” measures, we also notice an increase in the number of IUF laureates (200 laureates in 2023).