Sweden to work on building the ERA

The European Research Area (ERA) lacks the tools it needs to work in a comprehensive and transparent way, said Bjarne Kirsebom, Minister responsible for Research at the Swedish Permanent Representation in Brussels, as he looked at the R&D policy issues Sweden intends to tackle over the six months of its Presidency.

“We need to have those tools,” said Kirsebom. “Research policy is not developed in a vacuum.” Rather, he said, it needs to take into account what is happening in universities, research institutes and industry, at an EU level, and nationally: in other words, building a European Research Area that dignifies the label requires a high level of integration and coordination. But at present, said Kirsebom, there is no overarching structural framework for achieving this. “We think we can contribute to developing these structures,” he said.

Much has been done to build Europe’s R&D machine, at a European level through the Framework and other pan-European programmes, and at a national level by increasing public R&D budgets. But more consideration needs to be given to how these two levels work together, said Kirsebom. “How they can interact in an efficient way is at the core of research activities,” he said.

Kirsebom revealed that one ambition of the Swedish Presidency is to draw up guidelines on how policy structure should develop in the near future. For a start, he says, the numerous high-level groups that report to the European Council, on issues ranging from joint research programming to international cooperation and innovation policies, could interact better. This is not to question the standing of any one group, he adds, but to emphasise that they might cooperate to increase their efficiency.

In many senses, the Swedish position echoes the favourite footballing metaphor of Janez Potočnik, Commissioner for R&D, who often notes that while Europe has many star players, it is not a star team.

In considering the priorities that should guide European research cooperation in the future, and how that cooperation should be coordinated in terms of political governance, Sweden will be building on last year’s European Council roadmap for the long-term recovery of Europe, Kirsebom said. Among other issues, the Council called for the launch of a European plan for innovation and for the further development of the ERA.

The Swedes will also be picking up from where the Czech, and the preceding French, presidencies left off. It is no coincidence that the issues of the three presidencies connect closely, said Kirsebom: the trio agreed on a coordinated programme for the 18 months of their presidencies in the first half of 2008. In the case of R&D, this was heavily influenced by the launch of the Ljubljana Process, in which EU Member States and the European Commission agreed to take joint responsibility for establishing a genuine single European Research Area.

This called for mobility of researchers – backed by nationally compatible career structures – modern universities and research organisations, and a coordinated strategy for international cooperation in science and technology.

And significantly for the Swedish Presidency, the Ljubljana Process holds that the ERA can only be achieved through improved political management. This means it must encompass policies on research, education and innovation, and involve the full range of stakeholders.

But don’t expect a raft of legislation during the Swedish presidency. “It will mostly be a policy-developing presidency,” Kirsebom said.

The ideal of a single internal market for European research was first proposed in 2000. There was limited progress until the beginning of 2007, when Potočnik set out to invigorate the process with a Green Paper and a long public consultation, leading to the start of the Ljubljana Process in June 2008. Now, the Swedes will help to prepare the ERA for its tenth birthday.