Laboratoires de l’INSMI par régionWho does mathematical research and where does it take place ?
First of all, mathematical research is conducted by women and men. Their individual motivations have nothing in common with technocrats’ big projects, a fact the latter regularly forget. The challenge of administrative management consists in developing structures and projects in order to make use of people’s aspirations. Among those who make research move forward, are of course mathematicians. Only they have the training and knowledge required. But one must not forget the essential role of all those who support the research : engineers (most of the time responsible for implementing computer systems), technicians or administrative staff. They are deploying skills that mathematicians do not have, do not have enough of and without which the latter could not do without.
This research takes place in all kinds of institutions and firms. The universities’ mathematics departments along with those of the “Ecoles Normales Supérieures”, the Chairs of the “Collège de France” and the “Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques”, play of course a key role. This is the area those responsible for the present website know best and which they can describe. But other “grandes écoles” play also a role. There are a lot of mathematicians at the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (“Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique” – INRIA), a little bit less in other public institutions such as the French National Health and Medical Research Institute (“Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale” – INSERM), the French National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research (“Office National d’Etudes et Recherches Aérospatiales” - ONERA), the French Atomic Energy Commission (“Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique” – CEA), and others. Finally, private companies are involved in the process to a significant extent because of their constantly increasing needs for mathematical models and algorithms, whether it be in the field of finance, in oil companies, the aerospace industry, the telecommunications industry and all other industries requiring advanced technologies. The companies have entered into numerous agreements with laboratories at universities, and various companies are recruiting (maybe not enough) Ph.D. holders (phrase à revoir en version française).
The following data focuses mainly on the system of academic research that we know best. We hope, one day, to give a more precise picture of all of the mathematical research that takes place in France.