Tánaiste Calls for Innovative Science Promotion in EU

Tánaiste Calls for New Initiative to Promote Science in Europe

'Initiative should be developed with minimum bureaucracy and red tape' - Harney

A new initiative to support basic scientific research should be developed within the European Union, with "minimum bureaucracy", the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Mary Harney, has said.

Speaking this evening at a symposium in Dublin on `Europe's Search for Excellence in Basic Research' Ms Harney said the best approach to improving the EU's research and development performance, particularly vis a vis the US, was to generate competition among the best researchers, "supported by independent global peer review".

"I believe in the powerful influence that EU-wide funding of scientific research can bring to bear, where our best research scientists are continually subject to international peer review and benchmarking. And we should pay particular attention to nurturing new research talent", she said.

EU Research Ministers, scientists and industrialists are attending the two-day meeting as part of consultations and preparations for a new European strategy on basic research designed to close the gap with the US. The meeting, which is being chaired by the President of the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Edward Walsh, has been organised jointly by the Tánaiste's Department and the European Commission.

Ms Harney said global competition for technology and scientific talent was increasing and Europe was already lagging behind when it should be leading. "The question therefore arises as to whether there is a need for a specific EU initiative designed to stimulate the quality of basic research", she said.

"I do not want to pre-empt the work of the symposium but I believe we should move swiftly and with determination to develop such an initiative. A clear focus on scientific research, which is the fuel that drives innovation and growth, and the prioritising of particular areas of research for targeted EU funding, is not incompatible with a flexible new mechanism to implement such an initiative with a minimum of red tape" she said.

Ms Harney added that the EU as a whole and member states at a national level needed to re-examine their procedures for transforming research into commercial applications. Any fundamental review of EU R&D strategy must involve industry at an early stage, she said; European universities had much to learn from their US counterparts in this area, the most successful of which better understood that partnership with industry was imperative in terms of accessing private funding and expertise.

Ms Harney welcomed the publication this week of a study by the UK-based Demos think-tank which found that the key element of global competition was no longer the trade of goods or services or flows of capital but the competition for people, particularly "creative workers" in the scientific, technological and engineering sectors. "Europe has huge potential for gains in a world where technology, talent and tolerance are growing in importance and it seems to me that this is a powerful argument for the role of research in driving Europe forward" she said.

Comparing the EU as a whole with the US in terms of investment in R&D, a clear gap had emerged and the gap was widening, the Tánaiste said. In 1995 the US public and private sectors combined were spending €15 billion more than the EU, but by 2001 the gap had widened to €140 billion, with 80% of the gap due to lower business investment in the EU. In addition, there were an estimated 400,000 EU science and technology graduates currently in the US, some 90,000 of whom were working in the research area.

Ireland began serious investment in science, technology and innovation in the late 1980s and our initial focus was very much on applied research, Ms Harney said. But over time it became increasingly apparent that we could not continue to sustain applied research without a solid base in underpinning science and as a small country it was clear that we needed to focus our resources.

"To date Science Foundation Ireland has committed €320 million in research investments and it has achieved this with a core staff of 30 people, guided by a board of top quality people from the worlds of science and business. All of this confirms that excellence in science, and focus and direction, are not mutually exclusive. It also shows the value of an approach which is lean and effective and not hamstrung by bureaucracy", she said.

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