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Navigating towards unification: vessels such as Cyana may come together for European research. Credit: IFREMER

Three marine research agencies in Europe are planning to take further steps towards the creation of a unified European fleet of research vessels with a common scientific programme. The initiative represents a major step towards integrating the agencies' operations, and coincides with separate preliminary plans to float a European Maritime Agency (see Nature 392, 323; 1998).

The lead in the project is being taken by the Triangular Liaison Group (G3), which was set up by the principal bodies responsible for marine research in the United Kingdom, France and Germany in 1996 to strengthen cooperation on large marine facilities. The group has already agreed with the ship operators of each agency on pooling the use of their research vessels (see Nature 379, 576; 1996).

G3 brings together Britain's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the French Institute for Research into the Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER), and Germany's ministry of research, education and technology (BMBF).

Concrete steps towards closer integration are expected to emerge from the the group's next meeting in June. This will bring together not only the research ship operators, but also representatives of the peer review committees that approve research strategy within each agency.

According to Pierre Nounou, the official responsible for the G3 at IFREMER, the initial goal is to agree on common research programmes, with the ultimate aim of having a single evaluation committee for research proposals and a single group of ship operators. “This would amount to a European fleet of research vessels,” he says, adding that the construction of new joint European vessels is also on the agenda.

The current agreement is limited to Germany, France and the United Kingdom, which together represent more than 80 per cent of Europe's marine science resources. These countries are also the world's foremost marine science powers with a combined marine research workforce of more than 7,000 and a budget of FFr4.3 billion (US$700 million) — roughly equivalent to that of the United States, Canada and Japan combined.

Under longer-term plans, the tripartite agreement would be opened to the smaller European countries. These have a joint research workforce of 1,420 and a budget of FFr930 million, but often lack ships, submarines and other large facilities. Researchers from these countries could be included in research projects, for example, in return for a subscription.