French experience of public-private sector cooperation in high technologies

Mechanisms of public-private cooperation in science-and-technology modernization are discussed. This cooperation is manifested in the financing by the state of major high-tech projects, aimed at modernizing the economy and sustaining the economic growth, as well as of small-scale and medium innovational enterprises. In 2005, France decided to diversify its innovational mechanisms in response to the report "Toward a New Industrial Policy" by Jean-Louis Beffa, president and CEO of Saint-Gobain. Specialized finance institutions have been founded and 66 "poles de compétitivité " ("competitiveness clusters") assigned, six of which are to implement global-scale projects. France's experience of public-private cooperation for innovation can be useful for Russia too. © Nauka/Interperiodica 2007.