France needs to deal with the big-data challenge

French industry risks being left behind by the big-data revolution, the French Academy of Technologies has said.

In its report Big Data: One paradigm shift may hide another, published on 8 December, the academy calls on the French government to increase France’s capabilities in big data by ensuring there are more training courses on the subject in French higher education institutions.

France is “painfully lacking” in engineers competent in big data, the report says. It is therefore necessary, the academy adds, to make sure that training in big-data techniques is provided not only in engineering schools, but also in management and business schools.