2

Since the mid-2000s, the State has been supporting “excellence” policies aimed at creating world-class universities in France by focusing resources on the best institutions, laboratories, and researchers. While these policies make university leaders the central actors of these instruments, this article shows that on a day-to-day basis their implementation depends on precarious actors such as project managers. These policies of excellence produce a stratification of the academic profession from the top, by strengthening the institutions’ executive teams, but also from the bottom by creating precarious, undervalued positions with a difficult work rhythm, particularly invested by women researchers.