France supports EU priorities

France has published a national research strategy focusing on 10 priority areas that largely mirror the seven societal challenges of Horizon 2020.

Of the 10 "socioeconomic challenges" identified in the strategy, published on 5 March, seven are comparable to the Horizon 2020 challenges: climate change, energy, health, food, transport, innovative societies and secure societies. The plan’s other three priorities are industrial renewal, ICT and space.

Under each of these headings, the strategy lays out three to five related “research orientations”. Under ICT, for example, research should focus on fifth-generation network infrastructure, connected objects, the exploitation of big data, and collaboration between people and machines.