Munich

The concept of a single ‘European research area’ last week took another step towards becoming a reality. At a meeting in Luxembourg, the research ministers of the 15 member states of the European Union (EU) fixed a schedule for changes intended to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of basic science in Europe.

The aim is to forge closer links, at both practical and strategic levels, between the scientific activities and science policies pursued by individual member states through their national research agencies.

A number of scientific organizations welcomed the agreement as a major achievement. “What we have here is a clear outline of a true, and urgently needed, joint European science policy,” says Enric Banda, secretary general of the European Science Foundation (ESF).

The various measures for establishing the single research area are now set to be implemented by the end of 2001. They include creating a single European patent, compatible benchmarking of national research systems, building a high-speed trans-European research network, removing bureaucratic obstacles to the mobility of researchers, and opening national research programmes to selected transnational research projects.

The resolution is based on a proposal put forward in January by Philippe Busquin, the European Commissioner for research. However, as expected, a second resolution calling on the commission to support the infrastructure costs of Europe-wide life- science facilities was not endorsed (see Nature 405, 723; 2000).

Now that the European research ministers have formally endorsed Busquin's draft, the integration of national and EU research programmes appears to have become a significant practical priority.

Reinder van Duinen, president of the ESF and head of the Netherlands' national research council, says that science and technology are now high on the agenda of Europe's leaders. He is particularly pleased that the research ministers have agreed on well-defined tasks and a strict timetable for their realization. “The fact that there is now a managerial schedule puts European science policy on the same political level as the monetary union, defence or foreign policy,” he says.

Richard Brook, chief executive of the British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, similarly applauds Busquin's role in promoting the convergence of Europe's national science bases. He sees the resolution's suggestion of a coherent and comparable system of benchmarking national research performances as a necessary tool for achieving the common research space.

But Brook is also keen to stress that regional research efforts and small-scale collaboration will remain important. Moreover, he points out that, on legal and administrative grounds, national research councils have only limited opportunities to make funds available Europe-wide.

Even if such chances increase, there will be no dramatic overnight change. Indeed, the resolution suggests that the networking of national research programmes should start on a voluntary basis for goals with a European dimension. According to Banda, this matches the objectives of the ESF, which has recently set up its EUROCORES programme to aid collaboration between agencies or research organizations from different countries.

Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, president of the DFG, Germany's main funding organization for university research, calls the European research area an extremely helpful concept. “Increased networking between national funding agencies is really desirable,” he says. “The DFG will do everything it can to help make Busquin's effort a success.”

At a press conference following last week's research council meeting, Busquin emphasized the advances in science and technology policy that have been made during the past six months. “Science has finally taken the place in Europe it deserves,” he said.

France's new science minister, Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg, will next month succeed José Mariano Gago, the Portuguese science minister, as president of the European research council — the body that brings together EU research ministers. Schwartzenberg said last week that he is “fully sympathetic” with the course mapped out by Gago and Busquin.

http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/area.html

http://www.esf.org/about/eurocores.htm