X and IP Paris students consulted on France’s 2030 Recovery Plan
The consultation organized in several higher education and research institutions throughout France aims to integrate the concerns of the new generations in the government's plans for France’s Recovery Plan, which provides 100 billion euros of investment to revive the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic, promote employment and shape the France of 2030. It is divided into three parts : the ecological transition to which 30 billion euros are devoted, the strengthening of competitiveness with 34 billions euros of investments and national unity with 36 billion euros.
The students involved in the project were asked to focus on artificial intelligence (X and IP Paris), innovation and industrial start-ups (ESPCI-PSL) as well as cybersecurity (EPITA).
"These technological subjects are at the heart of the education, research, innovation and entrepreneurship programs carried out by our institutions," said Eric Labaye, president of the École Polytechnique and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, in his welcoming remarks to the Junior Minister for Digital Transition, Cedric O, who came to École Polytechnique to discuss the outcome of the students’ work..
A group of eight students from each of the Schools - Inès Benito (MSc&T Data Science for Business X-HEC), Thomas François-Poncet (X19), Naomie Halioua (MSc&T Artificial Intelligence, X-IP Paris) and Paul Contamin (ENSAE Paris-IP Paris); Gaël Blivet and Germain L'Hostis (ESPCI - PSL); and Julien Cohen-Scali and Julien Loctaux (EPITA) – set out the conclusions of their work to the Junior Minister.
Underlining the strong interest of the students’proposals, Cédric O summarized the presentations: "Three cross-cutting subjects come up in one way or another in all of your interventions, the first is the environmental transition, the second is talent development with the volume versus quality balance on which I think we’ve still have to find the appropriate equilibrium in our country and the third relates to the issues of sovereignty and independence."
During a Q&A session with the roundtable participants and the audience attending the event, Cédric O emphasized the need to attract the best French and foreign talents so that France can sustain the technological power nedded to preserve its economic prosperity, its social model and its quality of life.
To do this, "we need to move from a logic of attrition where we select the best by elimination to a logic of training and progress, we need to move from a logic of 1% to a logic of 10%" of an age group that integrates our best education program he said, recalling that "France is the the country with the highest number of students who leave the educational system without any diplomal.
"It is not because we have been, you, and me, the winners of this system that it is a winning system for all. We must have the capacity to say to ourselves that this system is dysfunctional and that it must change," concluded Cédric O, a HEC Paris graduate.