Potočnik: New EU research plan could go against member states’ interests

New measures to make it easier for researchers to travel between countries could upset some national capitals, EU research chief Janez Potocnik has warned

The plan, which also aims to improve the career development of researchers, will be presented to EU government ministers on Friday.

“It will go against some of the interests in some member states,” Potocnik told journalists in Brussels as he launched the plan on Tuesday.

“They might be protecting something existing, some structures which are outdated and so on.”

The ‘European partnership for researchers’, as the plan is being called, aims to encourage member states and their public research institutions to meet certain standards by 2010.

These include the open recruitment of researchers, providing attractive working conditions and adequate training for researchers, achieving the private co-financing of PhDs and ensuring that social security and pension rights travel across borders.

The plan has grown out of a public consultation the commission launched last spring, which found that researchers are often faced with precarious short-term contracts on projects that take them all over the world, and so have no continuity when it comes to pensions and social security.

The commission has some tools in place to improve the position of researchers, including a visa recognition package and a code of conduct on recruitment.

However, Potocnik admitted that reforms have not gathered the speed the commission would like. “Progress, to be frank, is slow,” he said.

“Only three per cent of researchers have experience in another member state.”

However, the Slovenian commissioner said that he wants member states when they meet on Friday to take the lead and “steer their role in European research” along with the commission.

“I’m confident that this is a step in the right direction,” he said. “If we work together and member states take seriously what came out of the proposals of stakeholders – their stakeholders – then I am confident that this proposal will go ahead.

“It’s always better to use a carrot than a stick.”

The commission is set to launch four other initiatives in the coming months on intellectual property, joint programming, international research cooperation and a proposal for pan-European research infrastructures. They are currently being finalised, Potocnik said.

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