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Discussions at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on the technology gap now extend beyond research to cover the general fields of management, education and attitudes to change.
What follows is a personal assessment of the outlook for European collaboration in science and technology. A fuller version will appear in European Scientific Organizations, edited by Eric Moonman, to be published by Penguin Books.
Germany, the birthplace of the university, is facing the need for fresh thinking about higher education. In science, a rapid expansion is taking place within the existing structures. But here too a re-definition of aims may be necessary.
Developments over the past half-century have led to a complete reversal of British policy for astronomy, and the future may see physics and chemistry united as one subject.
The need for a national science policy has been recognized officially in the Netherlands only recently. Since the Second World War, a complex system, including foundations and advisory councils, has grown up to deal with diverse aspects of pure and applied research.
Applied research was the main purpose of the Nuclear Energy Research Centre when it was established in 1952, but present work includes solid state and theoretical physics, radiobiology and genetics.
Research and development in universities and industry in Sweden has provided methods for separating molecules according to their size, shape and sometimes charge by the molecular sieving effect of gel-forming polymers.
Schools of Celtic Studies, Theoretical Physics and Cosmic Physics make up the Institute, which was founded nearly 30 years ago for academic research on the highest level.
After five years of discussion, the European Molecular Biology Organization is still without a laboratory, but enthusiasm for the idea is not diminishing.