Funding and Directing Research or Rewarding Scientific Achievement?: Two Centuries of Prizes at the Academy of Sciences in Paris

• Autores: Patrice Bret
• Localización: Nuncius: annali di storia della scienza, ISSN 0394-7394, Vol. 34, Nº. 2, 2019 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Prizes and awards in science before Nobel), págs. 317-355
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This study examines the science and technology prize system of the Académie des Sciences through a first survey of the prizes granted over the period extending from the 1720s to the end of the 19th century. No reward policy was envisaged by the Royal Academy of Sciences in the Reglément (statute) promulgated by King Louis XIV in 1699. Prizes were proposed later, first by private donors and then by the state, and awarded in international contest setting out specific scientific or technical problems for savants, inventors and artists to solve. Using cash prizes, under the Ancien Régime the Academy effectively directed and funded research for specific purposes set by donors. By providing it with significant extra funding, the donor-sponsored prizes progressively gave the Academy relative autonomy from the political power of the state. In the 19th century, with the growing awareness of the importance of scientific research, the main question became whether to use the prizes to reward past achievements or to incentivize future research, and the scale and nature of prizes changed.