By Chris Jones - 20th January 2006
European leaders need to show a greater willingness to match strong words on boosting research with adequate financial support, the European commission warned on Friday.
Increasing investment in R&D is one of the key elements of the EU’s strategy for boosting jobs and growth – the so-called Lisbon agenda.
But with research spending one of the main victims of the budget cutbacks last December, Europe’s chances of closing the technology gap with the US and Japan, and staying ahead of countries such as China, are growing increasingly slim, said EU research chief Janez Potocnik.
“Of course, we are not happy that the spending in important areas such as R&D has been cut as much as it has,” he said.
“But it is good at least to have a budget, a starting point for negotiations.”
The Slovenian commissioner was speaking at the launch of a report on the state of EU research, commissioned by European leaders at the Hampton Court summit on October.
The report, compiled by a team of four experts led by former Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho, calls for a “paradigm shift” in European attitudes to research.
“The European approach is that we have to invest in R&D to allow us to preserve the traditional industrial and social structures we have created,” said Aho.
“But this is clearly not working, and we are not even approaching the goal we have set ourselves, that is the 3 per cent share of GDP invested in R&D.”
“Only through reforming the entire social framework will we be able to reach these goals,” Aho said.
Improving Europe’s research base is not just about putting in more money, the report states, but also about creating the right kind of market for innovation to flourish.
“We need to act now, and together, before it is too late,” said Aho.
“We are already seeing companies investing more of their R&D capacity outside Europe because the conditions in the US or Asia are better.”
“These companies can do very easily without Europe, but Europe cannot do without them.”
Potocnik warned that European countries should not go it alone when it came to measures to boost innovation.
“If you look at each country’s Lisbon agenda reform programme – which will be published on January 25 – it is clear that R&D is important to everyone.”
“If there is no political will to cooperate at the EU level, each country will have to do more at the national level.”
“But there is no doubt that some kind of cooperation is needed at the EU level.”
The report highlights a number of areas where it suggests Europe should pool its resources to boost R&D.
Jozef Cornu, a former president of Alcatel and one of the four authors of the Aho report, gave the concrete example of traffic control technology.
“Virtually every EU country is considering introducing some form of electronic traffic control technology or road toll system.”
“But none of them are compatible. There are no standards, no norms.”
“This inevitably means that companies think small – on the country level – and rarely on the European, let alone global level.”
“EU start-up companies receive on average a sixth of the private sector funding that new US companies receive, and this is because they have only limited ambitions.”
Potocnik said that the commission was considering measures for increasing its role in coordinating R&D investments across the EU, but warned that it was complicated.
“We would have to go much further than simply the R&D arena,” he said.
“For example, technology for traffic control also involves coordinating in terms of infrastructure – the roads themselves.”
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