How should Europe manage its R&D? That’s the question that, on 4 April, the European Commission decided to pose to researchers across Europe.
How should Europe manage its R&D? That’s the question that, on 4 April, the European Commission decided to pose to researchers across Europe. Ideas on the table, in this Green Paper on creating a European Research Area, include changing pension and tenure rules, so it’s easier for researchers to switch countries or labs. They include coordinating national R&D programmes to end duplication, opening EU programmes to more non-EU researchers, and fundamentally re-prioritizing EU budgets to create a Europe of knowledge. The goal: To make mobility of knowledge the “5th Freedom” in the EU (alongside free movement of people, capital, products and services). The Commission is seeking public comment through 31 August, and will incorporate public views into policy proposals it will bring forward in 2008.
To broaden the debate, the Science|Business news network has organised a “town meeting” among researchers and EU Research and Science Commissioner Janez Potocnik. The event has taken place in Brussels at a gathering of academic and industrial researchers, and linked via Internet to satellite meetings on university campuses across Europe. The debate has been moderated, in person and online – and is continuing after the meeting with on-line discussion boards and a final summary report, which will be submitted to the Commission as part of its comment process.
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