{"id":111106,"date":"2025-04-10T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/aux-sources-de-linnovation-de-rupture\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T14:38:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T13:38:40","slug":"aux-sources-de-linnovation-de-rupture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/aux-sources-de-linnovation-de-rupture\/","title":{"rendered":"Aux sources de l\u2019innovation de rupture"},"content":{"rendered":"
This report which title could be translated as At the Origins of disruptive Innovation: Who Conducts Research? Who Innovates?<\/em> is published by La Fabrique de l\u2019industrie, a think-tank on industrial issues, whose author, Vincent Charlet, is its general delegate. In their preface, the two co-chairmen of La Fabrique, Pierre-Andr\u00e9 de Chalendar and Louis Gallois, point out that the report comes at a time when France needs to mitigate the risks of technological dependence on non-European states\u2014the risks of which were highlighted in a previous report.[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/h6>
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Charlet<\/span> Vincent, Aux sources de l\u2019innovation de rupture. Qui cherche ? Qui innove ?, <\/em>Paris: Presses des Mines \/ La Fabrique de l\u2019industrie (Les Notes de la Fabrique), March 2025, 148 p.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n \n See this publication\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \"\"\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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It compares the global share of patents filed by several countries\u2014members of the European Union, the United States, China, Japan and Korea\u2014for 12 breakthrough technologies (hydrogen for transport, batteries for electric vehicles, offshore wind turbines, the quantum computer, messenger RNA [ribonucleic acid], biological recycling of plastics, etc.). It describes the stages in the innovation process.<\/p>\n

In the first chapter, the author points out that the debate on the relationship between science and innovation is not new: does it follow a linear model? Although this is disputed, <\/em><\/strong>it is relevant, according to Vincent Charlet, with recent statistics showing that the proportion of patents based on scientific knowledge has increased over the last 25 years.<\/p>\n

The second chapter details the relationship between articles and breakthrough patents (100,000 patent families filed between 2010 and 2021). On average, each of them cites eight other patents as well as 1.6 references and 108,600 articles from the Web of Science <\/em>in total, i.e.<\/em> 0.5% of the world\u2019s scientific literature. Between 75% and 90% of the articles cited were published by researchers from the academic world, but between 10% and 25% by researchers from industry. There are wide variations between technologies: an average of 11 scientific articles cited for messenger RNA technology but only 0.04 for offshore wind turbines (but <\/s>is it really a breakthrough technology?). The articles cited by breakthrough patents are often in the top 1% of the most cited in their field. Breakthrough patents rely heavily on scientific excellence, and the study classifies them into four groups: one in which Asian applicants predominate, with little or no growth in the number of patents (hydrogen for transport, batteries); one relating to quantum computing, which is growing very fast, with a high proportion of American applicants; nanoelectronics, sustainable fuels for aviation, messenger RNA, photovoltaics, spintronics (or magnetoelectronics), low-carbon steel, which is experiencing moderate growth and is dominated by the US; and lastly, the European countries, with offshore wind turbines, biological recycling of plastics and strategic metals.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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26 February 2024<\/div>\n PAPON Pierre<\/a>\n
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The third chapter explains the five stages in the innovation process, each characterised by an indicator relating to the respective shares of the main countries studied: 1) in cited scientific publications listed in the Web of Science, <\/em>all fields combined; 2) in academic production within the \u2018scientific core\u2019 of each technology (articles in the 27 key disciplines of articles cited by patents and at the origin of innovations); 3) among articles actually cited by patents for each breakthrough technology; 4) in breakthrough patents citing scientific articles; and 5) in all breakthrough patents. Japan publishes 4% of the articles, with a global share of its \u201cscientific core\u201d of 5%, while its share of \u201cciting\u201d and disruptive patents is 16% and 22% respectively. South Korea has a similar profile. The United States has a different profile: it produces 18% of the world\u2019s scientific articles, but only 13% of those in the scientific core of innovations, for which it files 24% of the associated patents. France, Germany and the UK have profiles fairly similar to that of the United States, but with important nuances: the scientific core of France\u2019s breakthrough innovations is 3%, with a worldwide share of scientific articles of 2.8%, but its share of articles cited in patents is 5.3%. Its scientific output is therefore appreciated by patent applicants around the world, but is lower than that of Germany. France only registers 3.5% of breakthrough patents (Germany 9%). China\u2019s profile is different: the global weight of its publications is 18%, equivalent to that of the United States (25% of breakthrough patents); it files 12% of breakthrough patents with \u201cciting\u201d patents, i.e.<\/em> independently of national science. American, Japanese and Korean companies, on the other hand, do so in relation to their country\u2019s scientific output.<\/p>\n

In the fourth chapter, using a panel extended to 12 countries (including Switzerland, Australia and Taiwan), the author defines a scientific evaporation rate (the proportion of citations of a country\u2019s articles in foreign patents) and a scientific capture rate (the proportion of foreign articles cited in that country\u2019s patents). The former is generally very high for all countries (80%-90%) except for the United States, where it is 50% (75% for France); the capture rate is also high (90%, 75% for France), but lower for China (65%-70%) and the United States (60%-70%). US patent applicants, mainly companies, draw on both global and national sources of knowledge.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\n \n \"\"<\/a>\n <\/span>\n \n International technological competition<\/a>\n \n \n \n <\/use>\n<\/svg>\n <\/a>\n <\/span>\n
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27 January 2025<\/div>\n PAPON Pierre<\/a>\n
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In the final chapter, the author points out that France\u2019s priorities for research and innovation have been set out in the \u201cFrance 2030\u201d programme. Breakthrough innovations feature prominently in the programme, including food, biomedicine and space. The country\u2019s ambition is to become the leader in renewable energies, particularly \u2018green\u2019 hydrogen, a technology whose value is strongly disputed. Nuclear power is only present with the technology of modular reactors. The author points out that France has been weakened by the inadequacy and stagnation, over the last ten years or so, of its financial effort devoted to R&D (2.2% of its gross domestic product): it is at the bottom of the league table of countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Vincent Charlet believes that this lag is partly attributable to the private sector, but more specifically to the sectoral structure of its industry, which is relatively weak in high-tech sectors. Indicators from the Observatoire des sciences et techniques (the French Science and Technology Observatory) <\/a>show that by 2022, France would rank 13th<\/sup> in the world among <\/s>of science-producing countries.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, this new study by the Fabrique de l\u2019industrie stresses that a country\u2019s capacity for innovation is a critical function of three factors: the volume of its research activity and its excellence; its ability to produce articles with a high technological impact; and the ability of the private sector (ideally aligned with the public effort) to take advantage of the science thus produced and therefore to scale up. According to the author, France is underperforming on all three counts. Could there be a \u201cFrench paradox\u201d: a major research effort, but a gap between research and industry that is difficult to close? It is difficult to draw conclusions on this point by comparing the effectiveness of public research policies. The author does not believe that this thesis is well-founded, but he does believe that France\u2019s lag in terms of breakthrough innovation is mainly due, on the one hand, to the weakness of its public research effort and, on the other hand, to the fact that its industrial base is insufficient to meet the technological challenges of the 21st<\/sup> century. France will only be able to step up its innovation drive if it builds a high-tech industry.<\/p>\n

This new book by the Fabrique de l\u2019industrie comes at just the right time, as it is published at a time when France and its European partners are worried about their competitiveness in a geopolitical context of high tension.[2]<\/a><\/sup>. All readers of Futuribles <\/em>who are interested in industrial and economic issues will read it with great interest, even if it sometimes takes a little effort to interpret the many tables and graphs it contains; a selective bibliography provides additional information.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n

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\n Voir aussi<\/span>\n
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\n \n \"\"<\/a>\n <\/span>\n \n The Dynamics of Scientific Publication: the French Case<\/a>\n \n \n \n <\/use>\n<\/svg>\n <\/a>\n <\/span>\n
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26 December 2023<\/div>\n LAHATTE Ag\u00e9nor<\/a>\n SACHWALD Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique<\/a>\n
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N.B.: <\/em>this article has been translated from French by DeepL, and revised by the author and Futuribles.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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    Bellit<\/span> Sonia and Charlet<\/span> Vincent, L\u2019Innovation de rupture, terrain de jeu exclusif des start-ups? L\u2019industrie fran\u00e7aise face aux technologies-cl\u00e9s, <\/em>Paris: Presses des Mines \/ La Fabrique de l\u2019industrie (Les Notes de La Fabrique), 2023 (analysed in Futuribles, <\/em>no. 459<\/a>, March-April 2024). \u2191<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    Draghi<\/span> Mario, The Future of European Competitiveness, <\/em>Brussels: European Commission, 2024. \u2191<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This report which title could be translated as At the Origins of disruptive Innovation: Who Conducts Research? Who Innovates? is published by La Fabrique de l\u2019industrie, a think-tank on industrial issues, whose author, Vincent Charlet, is its general delegate. In their preface, the two co-chairmen of La Fabrique, Pierre-Andr\u00e9 de Chalendar and Louis Gallois, point … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":121834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[133,210],"keyword":[1023,1306,1004,949,1014,957,1088],"class_list":["post-111106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-seen-heard","tag-economie-et-emploi-en","tag-science-et-technique-en","keyword-competitivite-en","keyword-technologie-de-pointe-en","keyword-indicateurs-en","keyword-industrie-en","keyword-innovations-en","keyword-recherche-et-developpement-en","keyword-technologie-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111106"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121836,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111106\/revisions\/121836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111106"},{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.futuribles.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=111106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}