With the Académie des Sciences in 2015

TRANSMITTING KNOWLEDGE

When Scientists and Members of the Parliament converse

Politics and science constantly interact. Yet politicians and

scientists acknowledge that they do not know each other well enough

although they would have much to learn from sharing information and

experience with one another. In 2004, the Académie des sciences, at

the impulse of Académie Member Dominique Meyer, and the Office

parlementaire des choix scientifiques et technologiques (OPECST)

[Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological

Options] have thus launched a programme arranging for three persons

– one member of the Parliament, one member of the Académie des

Sciences and one young researcher – on a voluntary basis, to meet

and discover their mutual worlds under exceptional conditions. Such

tripartite partnerships take place in three steps:

•

members of the Académie and young researchers are

greeted into the Parliament (Senate and National Assembly):

here, at this initial step organized by the OPECST, the three

participants build contacts. Members of the Académie and

young researchers are acquainted with the legislative work

of the members of the Parliament who introduce them to the

role of some standing committees and delegations, as well as

to the work of the rapporteurs. They attend a session of questions to the government at the

Assemblée nationale

[French

National Assembly] and are given the opportunity to meet the presidents of the committees of the two chambers, as well as

representatives from all political groups;

•

members of Parliament are welcomed in laboratories: members of parliament discover there the many aspects of research

as an occupation, research projects in progress, partnerships, their necessary openness to Europe and the world, and

problems related to the management of big laboratories. They visit premises and facilities and talk with staff in order to

better understand how researchers lead their daily lives;

•

scientists are greeted into electoral constituencies: the scientists discover there how complex local politics are and how

multifaceted the duties of members of parliament in the field.

Beyond these three steps of the partnership itself, partners build direct contacts throughout the whole year, which last through time.

These sustainable personal contacts do add to the originality and fruitfulness of this programme.

In 2015-2016, the seventh tripartite partnership session began in Parliament on Tuesday 31 March and Wednesday 1 April 2015,

gathering 12 groups of three partners each.

Parlementaires, académiciens et jeunes chercheurs le 1

avril 2015,

dans la cour d’honneur de l’Assemblée Nationale