To date, the French government has allocated €834 million ($1.3 billion) of its €35 billion stimulus package, the majority of which has been loans from international financial markets. As part of its first installment of the package, coined Investments for the Future, the government announced €220 million for nine national life science and medical research infrastructure projects and €40 million for two pre-industrial biotechnology demonstration projects, which will be distributed over ten years. The majority of the grants will go to pan-European projects. A group of research agencies headed by the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission will receive €60 million for its France-Genomics project. Other grants include €32 million for the establishment of a “national platform on structural biology,” €27 million for the creation of a “national infrastructure for mouse disease models,” €26 million for biomedical imaging and €17 million for biobanks. Other funds that have been awarded include €340 million for platforms to upgrade French lab equipment and instruments, €200 million to assist ten new cohort studies for public health and medical research, and €33.7 million for five bioresources projects, including biofuels and crops. More awards will be announced this year.

Source: Nature