Opinion in 1999

The European Commission has clarified aspects of its next Framework programme of research. An insistence on quick delivery of socio-economic benefits threatens the programme's success.

Tackling scientific fraud has generated its own problems, while others remain unaddressed.

A survey of junior researchers in Europe shows a moderately satisfactory situation, but room for improvement.

President Bill Clinton's budget request for research falls short of the expectations of the scientific community, which have recently risen to unrealistic levels.

France's ‘contaminated blood’ trial is a reminder that witch-hunts, however well disguised in legal formalities, are no substitute for a credible, wide-ranging and dispassionate judicial inquiry.

A row over genetically modified foods spotlights the importance of procedures for validating scientific data.

The sharing of data by researchers ought to be encouraged. But a compulsion to release raw data and notes in current US openness laws is the wrong way to achieve it, as is a proposed amendment.

Debate about labels can be both powerful and pointless.

The relationship between Japan's universities and the education ministry is too undemanding to allow critical appraisal of research. Rigorous external evaluation must become the norm.

Last week's announcement that Britain will set up a Food Standards Agency opens a door for someone special.

A moratorium on clinical trials of animal transplants is justified.

A quick legislative fix to the question of the use of federal funds for research with human embryo stem cells has been rightly resisted. But clear thinking and communication are needed if the research is to achieve its potential.

The SPD and Green coalition that governs Germany has made notable progress and demonstrated flexibility in the process. But the Greens' lack of expertise needs redressing if good science is to get the support it deserves.

The choice of the new head of Japan's education ministry and Science and Technology Agency is to be applauded.

Cultural, institutional, conceptual and linguistic barriers are being overcome as physicists and biologists recognize the scientific stimulus they can gain from each other. The United States is showing the way.

The need to place scientific knowledge at the heart of economic and social policy has underlined some of the limitations of focusing on trade liberalization. Developing countries should be a prime beneficiary.