EU science policy
Currently, the EU is aiming at a so-called European Research Area integrating
not only the various European countries and regions but also the public
and private sectors. The following tables reveals some of the diversity
of the state of research in the peripheral European examined here and
compared with the EU average and the US.
Number of Tertiary Education Teachers and Students, 1997
|
Students
|
Teachers
|
Students per teacher
|
DK |
180,365
|
19,280
|
9.4
|
EL |
363,200
|
16,060
|
22.6
|
E |
1,684,450
|
94,650
|
17.8
|
P |
350,850
|
15,000
|
23.4
|
EU-15 |
12,266,655
|
850,555
|
14.3
|
US |
13,710,150
|
915,321
|
15.0
|
Source: Table 3.2.2, Towards a European Research
Area - Science, Technology and Innovation Key Figures, 2000,
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities,
2000
|
It will be seen that the EU and US students per teacher ration is approximately
equal. Denmark has a low ratio, Spain is just above the EU average, whereas
Portugal and Greece have a high ratio. This high ratio reflects the fact
that only in the last generation has a pool of academics been established
to provide a tertiary education required for a knowledge-based society.
That Portugal and Greece are playing catching up in this respect is clearly
revealed by the following numbers. These two countries' growth is particularly
high in higher education due to the perceived need of first establishing
a highly educated populace.
Average annual real growth in R&D expenditure by sector
of performance, 1990-1998
|
|
Gross domestic
|
Business enterprise
|
Government intramural
|
Higher education
|
DK |
5.3
|
6.5
|
2.8
|
3.9
|
EL |
7.3
|
6.9
|
-2.0
|
14.7
|
E |
2.9
|
2.1
|
0.1
|
3.8
|
P |
5.1
|
2.9
|
4.4
|
6.7
|
EU-15 |
1.2
|
1.2
|
-0.2
|
2.1
|
US |
3.3
|
3.2
|
-0.7
|
2.8
|
Source: Table 2.2.1, Towards a European Research
Area - Science, Technology and Innovation Key Figures, 2000,
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities,
2000
|
The result is indeed a growth in the number of researchers and a particularly
steep growth in the countries starting from the lowest base:
Number of Research Scientists and Engineers
|
FTEs(1)
|
RSEs/labor force(2)
|
Average annual growth(3)
|
DK |
17,443
|
6.2
|
6.1
|
EL |
10,972
|
2.6
|
9.9
|
E |
60,269
|
3.7
|
6.0
|
P |
13,607
|
2.8
|
7.6
|
EU-15 |
861,210
|
5.1
|
2.4
|
US |
964,800
|
7.4
|
1.1
|
- Full-time equivalents, 1997 (E 1998, US 1993)
- Share of research scientists and engineers in
total labor force, in (years as in 1)
- Average annual growth, c1990-c1998, in %.
Source: Table 3.1.1, Towards a European Research
Area - Science, Technology and Innovation Key Figures, 2000,
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities,
2000
|
The European Community and then the European Union allocated Structural
Funds to the so-called "less favoured regions", especially for
building the physical infrastructure (transport and communications). It
also allocates money for research through Framework Programmes, each lasting
four years and the 6th of which has just started (2002-2006). The following
series of quotes from the "Commission of the European Communities'
The Regional Dimension of the European Research Area (Brussels, 2001)
sums its policy up neatly:
Initially, Structural Funds activities in less favoured
regions were concentrated on physical infrastructure. This was essential
to build capacity in terms of laboratories and equipment. Today, despite
the fact that critical infrastructures are still important for enabling
the transition to a knowledge-based society and economy (for example
the availability of modern telecommunications and data networks), the
growing importance of intangible investments in education, training,
research and innovation priorities is widely acknowledged.
Over the last decade some €12 Billion have been
allocated to these regions in terms of RTD[research, technology, development]-related
investments.This amounts to the same order of magnitude as the Community
RTD Framework Programme overall, but it is important to understand the
difference in focus between these two instruments. The European Social
Fund in particular, as well as the European Regional Development Fund,
fund activities which are relevant to the knowledge-based society. Put
in global terms, the Structural Funds supported research capacity building
in the regions focusing on the material conditions of the research environment,
while the Community RTD Framework Programmes supported transnational
research projects built on scientific excellence with a specific socio-economic
impact.
But priorities are changing: for the period 2000-2006,
the Structural Funds explicitly place the promotion of research, innovation
and the information society as a priority. In their guidelines, based
on broad principles of identification of integrated strategies for development
as well as of the establishement of a decentralised and wideranging
partnership, encourage regions to undertake actions on innovation promotion
strategies, on building partnerships between universities and industry
and on developing RDTI skills in terms of human resources. [pp. 12-13]
Since 1994, Regional Innovation Strategies, under the
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), as well as Regional Innovation
and Technology Transfer Strategies (RITTS),
under the third activity of the fourth and fifth Community RTD Framework
Programmes, have served as policy tools for developing innovative capacity
in the regions. [p. 14]
Total ERDF budget: €400 million, 94% of which
for regional programmes of innovative actions. [p. 15] Includes:
- Creation or reinforcement of co-operation networks
between firms or groups of firms, research centres and universities,
organisations responsible for improving the quality of human resources,
financial institutions and specialist consultants, etc.
- Support for incubators for new enterprises with
links to universities and research centres; encouragement for spin-offs
for university centres or large companies oriented towards innovation
and technology [p. 16]
6th Framework Programme almost doubles budget for training
and mobility with many items of particular interest to less favoured
regions. [p. 17]
The less developed regions have few chances catching
up with the prosperous regions if they do not perform RTDI strategies
comparable to the prosperous regions. Basically, they are subject to
all the challenges stemming from globalisation and competition. [p.
18]
Modern scientific infrastructure is a key enabler of
regional economic development (for example science and technology parks
for efficient clustering and cooperation between academia and industry,
or high-speed electronic networks and related facilities as a key gateway
to the information economy). [p. 24]
Regional technology audits will be organised. [p. 25]
One can discern a clear ambition to render the European Research Area
an integrated part of economic life, "new"
in Michael Gibbons et al's cardboard terms. The following table does indeed
indicate that European peripheral countries are not developing toward
a US-style structure of R&D, so that the EU Commission's ambition
at least reflects an absence: European research has been growing while
not becoming markedly integrated with business concerns.
R&D intensity by sector of performance
|
|
GrDom./capita(1)
|
GrDom./GDP(2)
|
Bus/GDP(3)
|
Gov/GDP(4)
|
HighEd/GDP(5)
|
CivR&D/GDP(6)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DK |
|
|
|
|
|
|
EL |
|
|
|
|
|
|
E |
|
|
|
|
|
|
P |
|
|
|
|
|
|
EU-15 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
US |
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Gross domestic expenditure on R&D per capita,
at 1990 prices (equalised by purchasing power in each country).
- Gross domestic expenditure on R&D divided
by gross domestic product, in %.
- Business enterprise expenditure on R&D divided
by gross domestic product, in %.
- Government intramural expenditure on R&D
divided by gross domestic product, in %.
- Higher education expenditure on R&D divided
by gross domestic product, in %.
- Estimated civil gross domestic expenditure on
R&D divided by gross domestic product, in %.
Source: Table 2.2.2, Towards a European Research
Area - Science, Technology and Innovation Key Figures, 2000,
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities,
2000
|
In the terms outlined at the beginning, European research is still quite
linear, marked by a separation of lots of purish research within academia
and little applied-ish research in the private sphere. The EU Commission
has always targeted the applied end of the spectrum, very much in contrast
with US federal support for science. The US federal government funds long-term
research for which there is no discernable short-term gain (="pure"
research), but the European Commission stepped into the breach only when
the national governments were already funding "pure" research
and comparatively little "applied" - for instance, research
was not even mentioned in the Treaty of Rome. It is more of a historical
accident, rather than a conscious EU plan, that has led the Commission
to its research policy but science policy analysts find it fortuitous
[Margaret Sharp, "Towards a federal system of science in Europe",
in Rémi Barré et al (eds.), Science in tomorrow's Europe,
Paris: Economica International, 1997, pp. 201-217]. The Framework Programmes
funded by the EU are renegotiated every four years and as a result they
don't have the fixed categories of national funding agencies. The current
6th Framework
Programme (2002-2006) has a thematic area on "Nanotechnologies
and nanosciences, knowledge-based multifunctional materials, and new production
processes and devices". The programme addresses primarily the
demands of a knowledge-based society, but it is obviously not concerned
with a materials generic approach. [See also interview with the European
Commissioner for Research: "Philippe Busquin talks with IUMRS Facets
about Europe's new Framerork Programme, addressing R&D challenges,
and the role of materials", IUMRS Facets, Volume 1, Number
3, July 2002, S1-S4]
- Materials research in peripheral Europe - main
page
- Some characteristics of US materials
research
- EU policy on research, technology and development (with a view to
materials research in peripheral Europe)
- Materials research in Spain
- Materials research in Portugal
- Materials research in Greece
- Materials research in Denmark
This page was written and last updated
on 20 August 2002 by Arne Hessenbruch.
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