What Kind of Status for the Researchers? The Debate in 1968 Since the beginning, the general administrators of the CNRS had to face with a very difficult question: could a researcher, which could benefit of only transitory position, remain until his retirement? This would mean that a new profession existed: researcher. At the conference on research organized in Caen, the question of a researcher’s statute was debated. The two possibilities were: a) extend to researchers the model of the university’s personnel, or adopt a new scheme adapted to the research constraints. In 1959 the first statute for CNRS researchers were stipulated. But, in 1968 the necessity of their modification was clearly perceived by the civil servants in the government. A committee was created to study the problem. Meanwhile, in May, universities and the CNRS were in ferment. Researchers organized a national meeting in July; one subject of discussion was the question of the statute for all the researchers in France. The commission appointed by the government had to consider the hostility of researchers and of the general administrators of the great majority of research institutions to their reform project
