Title: The 'convention CIFRE': a successful French incentive scheme for the management of human resources in research activity

Authors: Michel Quere

Addresses: CNRS-LATAPSES, Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, France

Abstract: A CIFRE contract is a French incentive scheme which associates a firm and a public research group in order to finance a PhD student in producing his thesis whose subject is applied and should be profitable to the firm. In this paper, quantitative and qualitative aspects of the CIFRE contracts are set up, and I conclude that this public incentive scheme is successful. The core of the argument is to show how the basket of CIFRE contracts has changed from opportunistic behaviour towards deeper strategic cooperative projects. The effectiveness of this incentive scheme is by now obviously established, both for the company and for the public research group, and the paper explains the reasons of such a change. Consequently, some lessons from the CIFRE incentive scheme are suggested, emphasizing the role of human resources in innovation, and the understanding of French companies facing innovative choices.

Keywords: educational training; innovation support; research incentive schemes; research policy; human resources management; HRM; France; strategic cooperation; cooperative projects; cooperative R&D; research and development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1994.025583

International Journal of Technology Management, 1994 Vol.9 No.3/4, pp.430 - 439

Published online: 23 May 2009 *

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