Executive summary

Following a request by the EC and in agreement with the Tunisian "Secrétariat d'Etat à la recherche scientifique et à la technologie" (SERST), ERCIM performed an evaluation of the Tunisian research in information technologies (IT).

Tunisia has a strong and diverse scientific community based on three universities with science and technology activities, 18 national research institutes (NRIs) and a small but expanding private R&D presence including a growing number of international joint ventures. Most of the Tunisian research is carried out at the universities.

This evaluation was based on a visit to six institutions:

• Institut Régional des Sciences Informatiques et des Télécommunications (IRSIT)
• Ecole Nationale des Sciences de l'Informatique (ENSI);
• Département des sciences de l'informatique de la Faculté des Sciences de Tunis (FST);
• Ecole Supérieure des Postes et des Télécommunications de Tunis (ESPTT);
• Centre National de l'Informatique (CNI);
• Ecole Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tunis (ENIT).

and on written documents provided by them. These institutions were designated by the SERST and they cover the main research laboratories in IT in Tunisia. So, although it is mainly an evaluation of a few institutions, some conclusions can also be drawn for the whole Tunisian research in IT:

a) Tunisian research in IT is rather small but generally speaking of a good quality:

• the staff is highly qualified and the training delivered by the universities and engineering schools is at the level of European standards.
• the relationship with the economic activity and the social demand of the country is rather good and some institutions are working on contracts with the private sector

b) However, in spite of recent improvements, the general context for research remains more difficult than in most European countries:

• although research funding has been increasing recently, it remains low compared with European standards;
• for a long time, administrative procedures have been rather cumbersome for some institutions;
• due to the lecturing pressures in the higher education system, the number of full time researchers is rather limited;
• in particular, it is still difficult for a young PhD student to prepare his thesis full time in Tunisia;
• the scientific orientations of the laboratories suffer from a lack of focusing;
• access to information is still too difficult. Most libraries need to be improved and access to Internet remains problematic for most institutions.

As the importance of R&D and of IT is fully recognised in Tunisia, it should be possible to alleviate most of these difficulties. As a first step, a new law on research due to be applied very soon will give more autonomy to the research laboratories and facilitate their relationship with the economic world. Beyond that, it is clear that the Tunisian potential in R&D could be better exploited. In this respect, the main recommendations are:

• to set up a scheme for helping PhD students to prepare their thesis in the country;
• to take full advantage of the human potential existing in the country by encouraging all researchers to work in networks involving industry whenever possible;
• to focus the research efforts on some specific themes chosen according to their economic and social relevance and taking into account the existing scientific basis;
• to facilitate the connection of the laboratories to the Tunisian research network and to strengthen their international links.

More generally speaking information technologies are essential to the economic development of the country. Two domains appear to be particularly convenient for an action to be undertaken by the Tunisian Government:

• the strengthening of the competitive position of the Tunisian industry in the perspective of the free trade agreement concluded with the EC in 1995,
• the modernisation of the education system which will have to face a huge demand in the near future.

Setting up a special inter-ministerial task force in order to define an action plan in these fields and to follow its execution could be useful. The action of this task force could be supplemented by the establishment of an advisory working group made of experts coming from various horizons and in charge of thinking on the major societal and economic issues raised by the transition towards the information society in Tunisia.

Moreover, a wider involvement of the Tunisian teams in EU R&D activities would be most useful and full advantage should be taken from the facilities resulting from the MEDA programme. This would be facilitated by ranking Information Technologies among the Tunisian priorities in the bilateral dialogue between Tunisia and the EC which has been established in this framework.

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