• — Francia Open science, participatory research, sharing
  • Foucault Pendulum, National Museum of Arts and Crafts (MUAM/CNAM), Paris.
    Continuing professional development workshop, CNAM, Paris.

    National context and higher education system With a population of around 66 million, France has a well-structured higher education system comprising universities, grandes écoles, and research organisations. Universities constitute a central component of the public research system and maintain close collaborations with major national research institutions such as CNRS and INSERM, sharing laboratories, projects, and research activities. 
  • Universities are distributed across the entire territory: alongside large institutions located in major urban centres, there are universities embedded in diverse regional contexts, often playing an active role in local cultural and social life.  In terms of investment, France allocates a significant share of resources to Research and Development, with total expenditure amounting to around 2% of GDP. In recent years, growing attention has been devoted to the public role of universities and their contribution to fostering dialogue between science and society.
     Community engagement in France In France, community engagement is situated within an institutional framework that is still evolving. While the importance of dialogue between universities and society is widely recognized, community engagement is not always explicitly defined as an autonomous and priority domain of academic activity. More often, the relationship between universities and society is framed within the so-called “third mission”, which in the French context closely aligns with the concept of open science (science ouverte), understood as a more transparent, accessible, and sharing-oriented approach to research.  Unlike in other European countries, there is no single, widely shared definition of community engagement. Activities directed toward the public are described through a plurality of overlapping terms and categories, making the boundaries between practices less clear. This lack of a unified conceptual framework makes it more difficult to translate community engagement into structured and recognizable practices within universities, which often develop initiatives in flexible and experimental ways. Since 2021, a significant impulse has been provided by the policy named Science avec et pour la société, which explicitly promotes the idea of science “with and for society”. Through dedicated measures and investments, this policy has supported science communication activities, participatory research, collaborations with local actors, and initiatives fostering interaction between researchers and citizens, contributing to greater visibility and recognition of universities’ engagement efforts.  Engagement practices in France are far from marginal. Collaborations with museums and cultural institutions, open laboratories, science events, educational activities, and interactions with citizens and schools are widespread and contribute to making science more accessible. Many initiatives emerge from the direct involvement of researchers, departments, or research groups and develop in response to local contexts and audiences.
     Universities involved in the PLACES project* The two French universities involved in the PLACES project demonstrate different ways of building relationships with local communities. Field interviews highlighted distinct approaches.  The first university, resulting from the merger of a university and a research institute, has developed more structured forms of collaboration with its territory. Through an office dedicated to participatory research, the institution promotes dialogue between researchers and citizen associations to identify local needs and co-develop solutions, alongside initiatives led by individual researchers.  At the second university, engagement with the local context is primarily built through case-by-case collaborations based on personal relationships and mutual trust. Researchers start from the needs of local partners and seek common ground between different interests to initiate joint projects. This is complemented by the implementation of the Science et Société (SAPS) plan, which promotes dialogue between research and society through dedicated engagement initiatives.  Overall, the observed experiences show that community engagement in French universities takes diverse forms, ranging from more structured models to more flexible practices strongly rooted in local contexts.

    * To protect the privacy of the individuals and institutions involved, the names of the universities have been anonymised.