Materials Research in France: A Short-lived National Initiative (1982-1994)

Emanuel Bertrand (1) , Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent (2)

1 PECSA - Physicochimie des Electrolytes, Colloïdes et Sciences Analytiques
2 CETCOPRA - Centre d'étude des techniques, des connaissances et des pratiques

This paper describes the French initiative in materials research against both a national and an international background, in an attempt to disentangle the local circumstances, which prompted this governmental initiative, and to charac- terize the specific profile of materials research in France. In presenting a biography of the interdisciplinary program in materials research (PIRMAT), we argue that: i) the PIRMAT denotes a failure of the French science policy in materials research; ii) the leadership of the CNRS led to a specific style of research, quite different from the engineering approach of Materials Science and Engineering, and characteristic of a French style in materials research.

Mots clés: Science des matériaux; sciences pour l'ingénieur; politique scientifique; style national; interdisciplinarité

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]; Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Emanuel Bertrand, Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent. Materials Research in France: A Short-lived National Initiative (1982-1994). Minerva, 2011, 49, pp.191-214. ⟨10.1007/s11024-011-9168-0⟩. ⟨hal-00683175⟩