Paris June 10, 2026 — Philippe Baptiste, Minister for Higher Education, Research and Space, welcomes the appointment of physicist Thierry Dauxois as President of the CNRS.
Following a favourable opinion from Parliament after his hearings before the Cultural Affairs Committees of the National Assembly and the Senate, Thierry Dauxois, Director of CNRS Physics, was appointed today by the President of the Republic as President of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
Philippe Baptiste, Minister for Higher Education, Research and Space (MESRE), particularly wishes to thank and acknowledge the work of Antoine Petit, who led the CNRS for eight years and strongly promoted the institution’s and French research’s standards of excellence. Through his leadership, he also strengthened the links between public research, economic stakeholders, and innovation.
A former laboratory director, then Director of CNRS Physics and member of the organisation’s Executive Board, Thierry Dauxois also served as Vice-President for Research at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon. In all his roles, he demonstrated his ability to lead change with determination while seeking broad support. His scientific, human, and managerial qualities, as well as his in-depth knowledge of universities, engineering schools, and laboratories, will be essential assets in carrying out his project: simplifying processes to free up researchers’ capacity for action, strengthening French fundamental research, and creating the conditions for breakthrough innovation.
As the French research landscape has seen its governance strengthened since 2023 through the creation of programme agencies tasked with bringing together research forces to address major national policy challenges (AI, health, space, etc.), it will be up to Thierry Dauxois to consolidate the CNRS’s specific position within this ecosystem in the years ahead.
Thierry Dauxois will also be expected to enable the CNRS, together with its partners, to promote excellence in upstream, non-thematic and multidisciplinary research. This work will continue in complementarity with the scientific strategies independently developed by each university.
With nearly 33,000 research staff across more than 850 joint research units (UMR), most co-supervised with universities, the CNRS must continue, with its partners, to promote excellence in upstream, non-thematic and multidisciplinary research, which is the foundation of France’s scientific strength as well as its attractiveness for the best national and international talent.
Excellence and attractiveness will require more than ever a determined effort to address administrative burdens and free up time for research, in a coordinated manner between the CNRS and other research stakeholders: universities, other national research organisations, and the National Research Agency. At the same time, the MESRE will continue to reorganise itself to better support institutions in developing and implementing their strategies.
Furthermore, as science is more essential than ever to address the growing challenges of the contemporary world (climate disruption, increasingly complex conflicts including in the technological domain, population ageing, etc.), the CNRS, under the presidency of Thierry Dauxois, will be required to make a high-level contribution to all programme agencies, including the “Climate, Biodiversity, Sustainable Societies” (CBSD) agency, for which it is responsible.
It will also need to structure and support decisive action to increase and accelerate the transfer of scientific discoveries into socio-economic applications, both in the business world (startups) and in support of public policies. Finally, it must strengthen the central role of the CNRS in the international visibility of French science by ensuring proper coordination of French laboratories located abroad.
Philippe Baptiste, Minister for Higher Education, Research and Space, stated:
“I congratulate Thierry Dauxois on his appointment and wish him every success in his new role. He has my full confidence to lead the CNRS during a period of major challenges for French research. I would also like to warmly thank Antoine Petit and acknowledge the work he carried out during his two terms at the head of the CNRS. Over the past eight years, he has defended and embodied a demanding vision of excellence in French research.”
Source: CNRS
