12,500 foreign researchers working in French companies

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In 2015, French companies employed 12,500 foreign researchers, a workforce that has been rising exponentially since 2007 (+82%). These figures were revealed in a briefing note that has just been published by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.

With 280,000 researchers in 2015, France is third in the European Union in terms of the number of researchers, behind Germany and ahead of the United Kingdom. According to this recently published briefing note, foreign researchers represent 5.5% researchers in companies, compared to 13.1% in public sector research in 2015.

The EU in dominant position

If we examine the country of origin of researchers, around half are European, i.e. 53%, of whom 90% are from a European Union country.The second continent of origin of researchers is Africa, with 5,900 researchers, i.e. 23% of the total, followed by Asia (12%) and America (9%).

A large rise in foreign researchers in companies since 2007

Of the researchers working in companies in France, 5.5% of them are foreign. However, from 2007 to 2015, the average annual increase in international researchers in companies has shown a rise of 7.8% per year.

A high percentage of women

The number of women amongst foreign researchers in companies is 27%, whereas it is 20% on average amongst all company researchers. In 2015, the position of foreign women is more important than in 2007: we see a rise of 4 points, with 28% of women being from Europe, 32% from America and 33% from Asia.