Richard Descoings was a French civil servant. He was serving as the Director of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and as such as the Chief Administrator of the National Foundation of Political Science. These two entities are collectively referred to as Sciences Po, and are two of the most prestigious public policy research and teaching bodies in Europe. Descoings was also a senior member of the Conseil d'État.

Sciences Po or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies, is a private and public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of grande école and the legal status of grand établissement. The university's undergraduate program is taught on decentralized campuses in Dijon, Le Havre, Menton, Nancy, Poitiers and Reims, each with their own academic program focused on a geopolitical part of the world. While Sciences Po historically specialized in political science, it progressively expanded to other social sciences such as economics, law and sociology.