Imagine a world, or, closer to home, a Belgium, where some research would be allowed... And some not. Research into global warming, for example. Fundamental research with no immediate societal utility would be excluded, as would certain training programs deemed non-priority. A fictional scenario? Not really. In the medium term, the risk is real if the cumulative reforms are confirmed...
The CRef recently voiced its concern at the various developments and reforms through which the community, regional and federal governments risk financially suffocating the universities of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, concerns also relayed in a white card signed by over 2000 academics. If these cumulative reforms are confirmed, they will lead to a decline in the quality of training, an impoverishment of research and a drastic drop in the attractiveness of scientific and academic careers within French-speaking universities. Do our governments realize the extent to which strangling universities and the means devoted to scientific research jeopardizes the evolution of society as a whole? Faced with this prospect, the signatories have decided to resist and to use all the skills within them to demonstrate the absolute necessity of preserving their meagre resources, their freedom of research, the quality and diversity of their training, and confidence in these places of reflection and construction of tomorrow's society.
Impacts on innovation and the industrial sector
FWB universities have long established a strong link between fundamental, strategic, applied and industrial research, valorizing their results on a daily basis. They have set up knowledge transfer units, coordinated by the réseau LiEU, aimed at bringing together researchers and private or public partners to stimulate collaborations and promote the application of research results within society. More than 220 spin-offs have been created, some of which have become world leaders in their field.
Each type of research is linked to skills in other fields by multiple synergies: it is not possible to carry out cutting-edge strategic or applied research without a broad base of scientific expertise. The recent Draghi Report on European competitiveness established the unanimously recognized fact of this synergy: one of the recommendations of this report is precisely to perpetuate research valorization units in universities, whose current underfunding it highlights. In the Walloon Region, this support is based on temporary programs, covering less and less of the entire value chain. An uncertain future, when the valorization of knowledge is a long and complex process. What's more, it's incomprehensible that the Walloon Region is planning to slash funding for the WEL Research Institute (WEL RI), despite the fact that it is essential to strategic research, responding to economic, industrial and societal issues, and developing key technologies for the future. The figures speak for themselves: in 4 years, 50 patents, €10 million in revenues, 6 spin-offs, €88 million in investments and dozens of jobs created. A direct societal impact, the fruit of ambitious programs and proactive monitoring. Cutting the budgets allocated to research and WEL RI would break this momentum, leading to a decline in innovation, lower competitiveness and job losses. It would also jeopardize the country's ability to meet the target set by Europe of investing 3% of GDP in research, whereas public investment in this area contributes just 0.87% of the 3.4% achieved by Belgium in 2021 (source: FEB). Resisting the easy gesture of slashing research funding is therefore acting for the economic health of the country and Europe.
Towards a reduction in university independence?
In the United States, cuts or threatened cuts in federal funding for several major universities (Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley) are clearly aimed at muzzling these knowledge-producing institutions and reducing their academic freedom. One wonders to what extent the reforms announced here, the cumulative effect of which could bring universities to the brink of bankruptcy, are not part of a similar global trend that seesuniversity autonomy and academic freedom diminishing in favor of a utilitarian, even instrumentalist, vision of research and teaching.
In this context, the questions we see emerging about the usefulness of the humanities and social sciences are particularly worrying. Without speaking of censorship at this stage, we can only worry about restrictions on the "freedom to seek" (according to the FNRS's inspiring slogan), if only fields deemed immediately applicable or profitable are favored, to the detriment of others. The risks are considerable, not only for research, but also for training: tomorrow, our students may no longer have the opportunity to study in certain fields: "What's the point of studying literature in the Middle Ages after all?" some might think. But it's precisely by giving universities their independence and academics this freedom that these same people would learn, for example, about the links that can be made between the massive use of forgery in the Middle Ages and today's fake news, and the impact of this on populations. The complexity of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals is a perfect example of the interconnectedness of different fields, and underlines the importance of resisting immediate profitability and the narrowing of fields of knowledge.
Brain drain and declining quality: a dangerous boomerang effect
At a time when the national and international context underlines more than ever the need to invest in training, research and innovation, all these measures add to the chronic underfunding of universities. They will further reduce the attractiveness of academic careers, causing a brain drain and a loss of scientific standards, disqualifying our region in a world in crisis. This will negatively impact as much the quality of training that our universities will be able to offer students and PhD∙es, as the ability to attract European funds for research and innovation, yet essential to the economic development of our regions. And tomorrow, the astronaut chosen by the ESA will no longer be Belgian, but from a country where research has not been sacrificed. In a country where "grey matter" is the main resource, jeopardizing the training of researchers will have the effect of pushing industries in search of innovation to locate elsewhere... Leading irreparably to the socio-economic collapse of this country.
Is this what we really want?
Resisting the boomerang effect of these measures has become a question of survival for our universities, which are nonetheless indispensable players in societal evolution and economic development.
Signatories
- The French-speaking Council of Rectors (CRef)
- The F.R.S.-FNRS
- La Fédération des Etudiants Francophones (FEF)
- Essenscia Wallonie-Bruxelles
