With 25,000 staff working in every area of science, the CNRS is the emblem of French research. So when the country's premier auditing body states that all is not well with the agency, those involved should sit up and listen.

The auditors' report charges that the CNRS — which gets 2.4 billion euros (US$2.1 billion) of public funding annually — has had no strategic plan for the past six years (see page 563). On paper, this is undeniable, although to be fair to the CNRS, its lack of strategic direction owes as much to a repeated buffeting from successive politicians seeking to make their mark on the agency as to the CNRS's own failings.

The good news is that the agency's governing board this week endorsed a plan that correctly identifies the thorny issues — such as poor mobility and lack of autonomy for young scientists — that lie at the root of the CNRS 's problems. The question is whether this plan can be translated into action.

The CNRS has long been caught in an unhappy ménage à trois between the universities, which host its labs, and its paymaster, the research ministry. If French science is to be freed from this tug-of-love, each partner needs a better-defined role.

Addressing this problem should be a top priority for the new research minister who will be appointed following the parliamentary elections in June. With half of the country's scientists due to retire over the next decade or so, the minister will have an unprecedented opportunity to reshape France's research system.

Equally important to revitalizing the CNRS, and perhaps more challenging, will be the need to get the universities to address the twin themes of mobility and autonomy, and to lessen the teaching demands on top university scientists. Only then can the universities and CNRS labs begin to interact in a more productive way.