The Emergence of Research Grants within the Prize System of the French Academy of Sciences, 1795-1914

Abstract

The French Academy of Sciences established many important precedents in the development of modern science. One of these was the prize system, which originally involved the conferral of a few highly prestigious prizes. Yet the advance of experimental science in the nineteenth century demanded the availability of funds to carry out future research, rather than the reward of a few successful examples of past research. This paper shows how the members of the Academy gradually transformed the traditional system of prizes awarded with great honour into a less prestigious but more widely shared system of monetary awards, which finally led to a system of grants for younger researchers of promise.