Galileo crash leaves Commission red-faced

The timing couldn’t have been worse. The day before the European Commission announced two new public/private research partnerships, in the fields of advanced medicines and embedded computer systems, it had to admit publicly that the first such public/private partnership at the European Union level – the ambitious Galileo satellite system – had crashed and burned.

The Commission wants the public sector to pick up the pieces in the case of Galileo, but it is unclear whether member states will agree to foot the bill, estimated in billions of euros.

National government ministers briefly discussed Galileo and, separately, the two joint technology initiatives (JTIs) at a meeting in Brussels this week. Politicians insist there is no connection between Galileo and the two new initiatives.

“The JTIs are bottom-up by nature: industry was calling for them and was instrumental in their creation, wheras Galileo took a top-down approach: it was thought up by politicians who then turned to industry to develop it,” explained a British diplomat on the normal condition of anonymity. [EDs its Helen Bower at UKREP]

But some people fear that the more down to earth partnerships being proposed now may, like Galileo, fall hostage to politics.

Two industry associations were instrumental in setting up the first two JTIs. Companies including the Dutch electronics manufacturer Philips, German car maker DaimlerChrysler and Finland’s mobile phone maker Nokia joined forces at the beginning of this year under the umbrella of  ARTEMISIA, a trade association, to promote the benefits of embedded systems in Europe.

The joint initiative with the European Union, dubbed ARTEMIS, focuses on the invisible computing embedded in all kinds of machines from cars to phones, and from energy networks and factories to washing machines and televisions.

The Commission predicts there will be over 16 billion embedded devices in operation worldwide by 2010 and over 40 billion devices worldwide by 2020. By 2010 these invisible chips will represent 30-40% of the value of new products in consumer electronics, telecoms, automotive and health equipment.

The ARTEMIS research budget will total €2.7 billion over seven years. Around 60% of the budget is expected to come from industry, €410 million from the Commission and €800 million from Member State programmes.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), research organisations including universities, and corporate members have been invited to join these industrial associations. ARTEMISIA has already received over a hundred applications from the research world and companies.

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA)  helped the Commission, the European Union’s executive body, to establish the innovative medicines initiative (IMI).

EFPIAcomprises 30 national associations and 46 leading pharmaceutical companies. Idirectly it represents over 2000 companies involved in new medicines R&D.

The programme will have €2 billion to invest over seven years. The E.U. contribution of €1 billion will go entirely to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and universities for research that can be used by the pharmaceutical sector, the Commission said.

Major companies will match this amount and will involve these SMEs and universities. “The IMI will therefore contribute to increasing private investment in R&D, improving the knowledge transfer between universities and business, and involving small business in European research,” the Commission said.

By gathering expertise and resources from the public and private sectors, the IMI will provide a framework for the conduct of pre-competitive collaborative research to develop new tools and technologies for safety assessment, efficacy evaluation, knowledge management and education, according to EFPIA.  

“This will increase the efficiency of drug discovery and development, enabling more effective and safer medicines to be developed to meet the needs of EU citizens,” it said, adding that the IMI will “help to maintain and augment the European science base in order to make Europe more competitive and an attractive place for biopharmaceutical research investment.”  

EFPIA urged politicians to act swiftly to get the IMI up and running as soon as possible. In principle, the legislative process required to launch the initiative should be quick. The European Parliament isn’t involved in the decision making, leaving the approval process up to the 27 national governments in the Union.

"Subject to formal adoption the end of this year, IMI will launch its first calls for proposals in early 2008, and we hope to be able to start the first research projects by the end of 2008. Depending on the projects we hope to see the first scientific results by the middle of 2009," said Christophe de Callatay, EFPIA’s spokesman.

And it appears that the member states are also keen to approve the first two initiatives before the end of this year.

“The IMI is a top priority for UK government, and our impression from the meeting this week is that most countries support the idea of the public /private research partnership, in spite of what has happened with Galileo, and want to agree these two initial projects by the end of the year,” said the British diplomat.

“Everyone agrees it is key to get industry involved in these projects. I can’t see a country blocking the initiatives but there could be some debate about which industries and which companies should be involved,” she added.

This was one of the main reasons why the public/private partnership behind Galileo fell apart. Governments were competing in order to secure larger slices of the development and construction work needed to launch the 30 geo-positioning satellites.

“I don’t feel qualified to make a public comment on the likelihood that IMI may become a hostage to EU politics,” said de Callatay, but he added that there are concerns among some members of EFPIA.