Materials Research Activities

EU policy on research, technology and development (with a view to materials research in peripheral Europe)

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
  1. Full-time equivalents, 1997 (E 1998, US 1993)
  2. Share of research scientists and engineers in total labor force, in ‰ (years as in 1)
  3. 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)
 
1990
1998
1990
1998
1990
1998
1990
1998
1990
1998
1990
1998
DK
249
364
1.6
1.9
0.9
1.2
0.3
0.3
0.4
0.4
1.6
1.8
EL
32
48
0.4
0.5
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.1
0.1
0.3
0.4
0.5
E
93
121
0.8
0.9
0.5
0.5
0.2
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.8
0.8
P
47
67
0.5
0.6
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.2
0.3
0.5
0.6
EU-15
291
292
2.0
1.9
1.3
1.2
0.3
0.3
0.4
0.4
1.8
1.7
US
572
645
2.7
2.6
1.9
1.9
0.3
0.2
0.4
0.4
2.1
2.3
  1. Gross domestic expenditure on R&D per capita, at 1990 prices (equalised by purchasing power in each country).
  2. Gross domestic expenditure on R&D divided by gross domestic product, in %.
  3. Business enterprise expenditure on R&D divided by gross domestic product, in %.
  4. Government intramural expenditure on R&D divided by gross domestic product, in %.
  5. Higher education expenditure on R&D divided by gross domestic product, in %.
  6. 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.