A veritable war of communication and influence is being played out between supporters and opponents of the project to set up an LVMH research center on land adjoining the Ecole polytechnique, in Palaiseau (Essonne). The synergies planned between the group of Bernard Arnault and the X divide the small world of polytechnicians. On November 8, the school’s Board of Directors issued a positive opinion with 19 votes for, 4 votes against and 1 abstention. “This project is totally in line with the development strategy followed by the Institut polytechnique de Paris and will allow us to increase our visibility on the international level in terms of research and innovation”, says its president with satisfaction. Eric Labaye.
The members of the collective “Polytechnique is not for sale” at the head of the sling against the project, do not hear it that way. “Is it really the role of this school, largely financed by public funds and whose vocation is to serve the general interest, to ally itself with a luxury group whose products are aimed at a very small part of the population?”, denounces its spokesperson Matthieu Lequesne, who had already participated in the mobilization against the establishment of a Total innovation center within the X campus. After two years of controversy, the tanker had finally given up.
This new battle which is being played out around the file baptized “Gaïa” by LVMH symbolizes the differences around the future of this establishment created in 1794 to provide the nascent Republic with high-level engineers. Two centuries later, the roadmap of this prestigious school has of course evolved considerably. “Our ambition is in line with the desire expressed by Emmanuel Macron in 2017 to become an MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] à la française”, insists Eric Labaye. For the management, which points out that Polytechnique already has more than 200 industrial partners, an agreement with LVMH would mark a “change of scale”. Negotiations are still in progress but the company could bring 10 million euros between 2023 and 2030.
For opponents of the project, such an alliance, although financially attractive, would involve several dangers. This 22,500 square meter building, supposed to house 300 researchers by 2026, is planned to be built at the heart of the school’s innovation and research park. Added to the fact that LVMH will own the premises to be built, this location crystallizes a good part of the criticism. “For me, an autonomous research center of this size, including its own administrative, commercial and marketing entities, has nothing to do on an academic campus!”, Gets carried away Alexandre Moatti, former of the X and associate researcher at the University of Paris VII, who sees in it a problematic mixture of genres. The research themes, worked with LVMH, will focus on sustainable materials, data and artificial intelligence, and life sciences. “Which falls completely within the scope of our six interdisciplinary centers already launched or about to see the light of day”, defends Eric Labaye. Without convincing Alexandre Moatti: “We are moving more towards product development than towards very high-level research as expected from a school like Polytechnique”. A survey, carried out at the end of October by the AX, the powerful association of former students of the school, reveals that 62% of them are in favor of the development of this LVMH center.
Turning point of 2013
On the student side, the reception seems more mixed since, in another survey, conducted almost simultaneously with members of the 2019, 2020 and 2021 promotions, 43% of those polled gave an unfavorable opinion, 23% a favorable opinion, 25% said want to “align” with the opinion of professors and doctoral students and 9% do not decide. “But as the professors are for it, the balance tips in favor of the research center!”, Analyzes the president of AX Marwan Lahoud.
The very divided opinions can be explained by the great diversity of profiles that make up the approximately 500 graduates of the engineering cycle each year. Between those who are moving towards research, those who join state bodies, those who prefer large companies or consulting firms, it is difficult to draw a composite portrait of the polytechnician today. In 2013, the school took a turn with the appointment of Jacques Biot as president. The roadmap of this mining engineer and former consultant in the pharmaceutical industry was assumed: open the school to the business world and internationally. A path pursued, from 2018, by Eric Labaye, who has spent almost all of his career at McKinsey.
“At the service of the whole nation”
Some see it as a symbol and wonder about the adequacy between the original vocation of the X, created to serve the State and what it has become. “For me, the Ecole polytechnique is not simply at the service of the State but at the service of the entire nation. The fact that it is able to irrigate the country with talent in very diverse sectors contributes to its radiation”, answers Bruno Angles, ex-president of the AX and general manager of AG2R La Mondiale. For Vincent Le Biez, major of Polytechnique in 2004, everything is a question of proportions. “In my opinion, the more graduates turn to industry, private or public, the better it will be for the country which has undergone a profound deindustrialization in recent decades, he says. -up, doing consulting or finance does not shock me if the percentages remain reasonable.” And the man to be surprised at the controversy aroused by the possible arrival of LVMH. “When I was a student, EDF, Thales and Danone were already established on the Paris-Saclay plateau, but that didn’t seem to move anyone,” he adds.
The debate around Polytechnique’s vocation is far from new. In a severe report, dated 2015, the deputy François Cornut-Gentille, protested the fact that no “global reflection of the State on the role of the school” has “been carried out for forty years”. According to him, nothing has changed seven years later. “The State has strong ambitions for Polytechnique, encourages it to rise in the international rankings, without giving it the means for this ambition and without displaying a clear course of action”, deplores the former elected LR of Haute -Marl. An absence of piloting illustrated according to some by the file of the remuneration of the students. While only 13% of them today join the bodies of the State, against 45 to 50% at the end of the 1970s, they still receive an amount of around 900 euros per month during their course. In exchange, the latter undertake to practice in the public for ten years, otherwise they will have to reimburse these tuition fees according to the “slipper” system. A 2015 reform put an end to certain inconsistencies: since the year 2000, no polytechnician was required to pay the slipper… except those, very few, who became civil servants but did not remain so for ten years. Those who, on the other hand, chose to join the private sector right out of school were exempt. Ubuesque. Today everyone is concerned.
How much is the recovery amount now? “We will only know from 2025 because we have to wait ten years to begin to see the impact of this reform”, replies Eric Labaye, stipulating that the X will ensure “a very square follow-up” of the professional career of every student. A survey carried out every five years – but which the school refuses to make public despite the request of L’Express – should make it possible to know where the former students work. The amount of the slipper which today amounts to less than 1 million euros annually could represent in the future a revenue of 6 million per year, according to the school. A sum that it will allocate, among other things, to the financing of teaching and research.