La politique de recherche en Belgique francophone: la difficile refonte stratégique d’une tradition libérale

Since the 19th century, Belgian universities were the locus of most scientific activities, with a strong interaction between researchers, industrial and other private sponsors. After 1945 only did the State enter the game. After 40 years of regionalisation, science policy is now organised within a multi-level asymmetrical regime. On the French speaking side of the country, universities have to cope with an under-budgeted political entity (French Community) mobilising an autonomous “mertonian” vision of research. At the same time, researchers have to deal with the development of the Walloon Region which autonomously develops an aggressive strategic policy in key economic sectors, promoting new patterns of university-industry cooperation in support of regional development. We analyse the practicalities of this mix of policy instruments in a specific scientific domain, medical biotechnology. University researchers have to integrate the multiple logics of these instruments under conditions of limited resources. They are also part of a larger transformation of their scientific disciplinary domain: increase of the competition in the international framework and speeding up of the scientific processes. Interviews with researchers and program managers from a set of regional, federal and European authorities unveil differentiated processes of cooperation and negotiation.