Philippe Baptiste "in favor" of keeping the Palais de la Découverte in the Grand Palais

Asked whether the museum should remain within the walls of the Palais d'Antin - in a wing of the Grand Palais in Paris - Philippe Baptiste replied: "I'm in favor, even if the decisions haven't been completely made yet. It's an incredibly emblematic place. In France, all the scientists are extraordinarily attached to it."

The Palais de la Découverte and the Cité des Sciences, united within Universcience, "have a DNA and ambitions that are not the same. I think it's complicated to bring everything together in the same place."

"Especially since the Cité des Sciences will have to be renovated. The building is aging and has structural problems. There are enormous real estate and economic issues behind it. However, we cannot imagine finding ourselves at a given moment in a situation where one would be unavailable and the other would be undergoing renovation," the minister noted.

Mr. Baptiste, however, defends "developments around the Palais de la Découverte": "We are in the process of changing the route a little."

"Those who visited the Palais de la Découverte were able to dissect frogs or conduct electrostatic experiments with fabulous equipment. But we also need to open the museum up more to society, with questions about technologies that are everywhere and the climate. All of this needs to be even more visible than before," the minister explains.

Universcience employees launched a petition on Friday to "save" the Palais de la Découverte after the government terminated the position of Universcience President Bruno Maquart. It had reached more than 64.000 signatures in six days, according to the website Change.org.

Around twenty of them gathered in front of the building on Thursday for the inauguration of "Transparency," an exhibition co-produced by the Grand Palais and the Palais de la Découverte aimed at children.

"We are satisfied that the minister has listened to the scientists, the community, and the staff. We are ready to explain the project to him, because climate change, artificial intelligence, all of that is already included," Emmanuelle Lambert, head of the Palace's scientific mediation team, told AFP.

With her team of 42 mediators, "on a cross-cutting theme, you have specialists in each of the disciplines who allow us to cross-reference perspectives and provide a general understanding," she explained, also citing the innovations planned for the reopening, such as immersive rooms and a telescope allowing for participatory research.

The building, famous for its planetarium and electricity room, closed in 2020 for renovations and is expected to reopen in 2026.