Thank you.
The participants largely came from the international Francophonie, in particular North and Sub-Saharan Africa. There were also a lot of European researchers and some researchers from North America. Last week was not a convenient time for North American researchers, since we are in the middle of the university session.
In terms of observations, I noted that young francophone researchers strongly wanted to meet other francophone researchers to discuss scientific issues. That need was real. As well, as I said earlier, attention was turned toward Canada and the role it could play, as opposed to other francophone countries on the African continent that are more affected by French colonization. I would remind you that we were in Tunisia.
Since my return, I have been receiving requests for guidance about maintaining science in French. However, as was mentioned earlier, the present system does not encourage francophone researchers to write and publish their work in French. Ms. Lagacé pointed this out earlier. But the fact is that the demand is there. In the present system, the way grant applications are considered favours publication in certain types of journals, generally not many being francophone.
Young francophone researchers are having to deal with this problem and we see declining interest in the Francophonie, even in countries where the scientific language is French. The present model is clearly pressuring researchers to opt for English.