In a world of competition, knowledge is a valuable resource. Prosperity and economic growth require considerable investment in research and development. Bearing this in mind, the Council of the EU has decided that at least 3% of GDP is to be invested annually in research and development by 2010.
One priority of the German Council Presidency will be to promote research with a view to increasing innovative potential in the private and public domain. Efforts will involve the entire value-added chain, from strengthening basic research to developing new products and services. The launch of Seventh Framework Programme for Research and the establishment of the European Research Council (ERC) at the beginning of 2007 will provide a solid basis for this. Providing funds of more than one billion euro per year for basic research projects, the ERC will represent a paradigm shift in an area previously considered the sole responsibility of the individual Member States.
Strengthening investment in research and development means employing other financial instruments alongside the EU Framework Programme. Structural funds, for example, are to be used to integrate the new Member States in the European Research Area, in order to make full use of the synergies between these instruments and the EU Framework Programme with its excellence principle. The German Presidency will support the Commission in drawing up guidelines offering the new Member States practical advice on funding research infrastructures through a combination of structural funds and resources from the Seventh Framework Programme. This should allow for greater transparency and simpler application of the complex legislation in these areas.
Increasing Europe’s capacity for innovation means supporting technological research and its marketability research. Existing potential in universities, research institutions and companies must be pooled more effectively.
Both improving the application of research results and stemming the uncontrolled transfer of know-how are becoming increasingly important issues in the context of international competition. The German Presidency intends to initiate a charter for the use of intellectual property rights at public research establishments and institutes of higher education, and in doing so, help improve cooperation between these institutions and the business community.
The German Council Presidency will highlight the importance of research for Europe against the background of the Lisbon Strategy for growth and employment, the 3% target, the launch of the Seventh Research Framework Programme (RFP 7), the European Research Council (ERC), which is funded under the RFP 7, and the necessity of developing the European Research Area further: Research improves competitiveness, secures prosperity and facilitates social participation. The review of the EU budgets, which is due in 2008, offers an opportunity for intensive consideration of the requirements and necessities of research in all the areas mentioned, the aim being to ensure not only that the 3% target is achieved – this is the task of the member states – but also that investments in research are also increased at European level.
The current situation shows us the opportunities and necessity for becoming active as a sustainable driver for Europe. Research and innovation are priority areas in the Lisbon Strategy for growth and employment. The 3% target and strengthening the European Research Area are at the very top of the agenda. They provide an excellent, broad basis for positioning our initiatives. In addition, they give the Presidency a special dimension. The initiatives are addressed not only to the European institutions (Council, European Parliament, European Commission) but also directly to the member states with regard to the design of their national research policies.
The RFP 7 will be launched on 1 January 2007. The launch of the European Research Council (ERC) and funds of more than one billion euro per annum will open a new chapter in European research funding by investing directly in basic research, an area which until now has been considered the task of the member states themselves. In addition, Security Research will be funded for the first time and the Research Framework Programme will be fully open to cooperation with third countries. The review of the EU budgets in 2008 will decide once again what amount of the overall budget is to be earmarked for research.The research perspective will enrich the discussion on Europe's future in the context of the revival of the debate on a European constitution and EU enlargement. In light of the situation and fields of action described above, the German Council Presidency aims to provide lasting impetus and obtain concrete results within the framework of legislative measures and initiatives by taking decisions with a long-term impact.
The launch of the RFP 7 is being accompanied by a number of research policy and legal decisions of considerable importance. These include up to four decisions on the promotion of joint programmes of member states in accordance with Article 169 EC Treaty as well as up to six decisions on Joint Technology Initiatives in accordance with Article 171 EC Treaty. Both packages contain important legislative measures with regard to Germany’s national High-Tech Strategy as well as to strengthening the European Research Area.The same applies to further deliberations on the proposal to establish a European Institute of Technology (EIT). The EIT is to enable innovation partnerships, foster entrepreneurial initiatives and translate R&D results more quickly into commercial opportunities. The German Council Presidency will support a European competition for excellence to achieve these goals.
The German Council Presidency can make a significant contribution to the long-term development of the EU research budget. Important targets which should be met include the shaping of the European Research Area and support for the 3% target by opening up national programmes in accordance with Article 169 EC Treaty and the associated provision of European co-funding, as well as the establishment of Joint Technology Initiatives (e.g. cross-border implementation of elements of the High-Tech Strategy) and European Research Infrastructures. Against this background, it is our aim (key word “Lisbon priority”) that the financing deficits in the Research Framework Programme identified during the half-term evaluation should be adequately taken into account in the second half of the Financial Perspective.
Following the adoption of the RFP 7, the European Commission plans to present a Communication during the German Council Presidency. Furthermore, a high-level event on the subject of research entitled “Today is the future” is to take place on the eve of the summit of Heads of State and Government in Brussels. A two-week exhibition with wide public appeal showing the top accomplishments of European research is to be opened at this event. The exhibition will also include the Max Planck Society’s Science Tunnel and will be the platform for presenting the 2006 Descartes Prizes for Research Cooperation and Science Communication.
Until the RFP 7, basic research was always reserved for national funding, whereas the focus of the Research Framework Programmes was always on industrial research. The establishment of the European Research Council (ERC) therefore means that European research funding is taking a new direction. The generation of new knowledge provides a starting point for future innovations and for establishing and opening up markets. Innovations based on excellent frontier research will help to overcome barriers, create new jobs and secure existing jobs. The German Council Presidency will contribute towards identifying the changing needs of a modern European society and towards taking sufficient account of these needs with regard to innovation and competitiveness. The aim is to overcome supposed contradictions, to strengthen basic research as a link in the value-added chain, which is also in the interest of the long-term success of the High-Tech Strategy, and to involve it in processes of innovation.
According to a European study (Gago Report), Europe has a shortage of 700,000 researchers. Capable young people opt only too rarely for a career in research, or abandon such careers due to unfavourable framework conditions – particularly inadequate investments in research. This issue is thus first and foremost a contribution towards achieving the 3% target of the Lisbon Strategy. However, it is also important to improve the current systems, particularly mobility and opportunities for transfer between universities, research institutions and industry. In times of increasing globalization and in the interest of Europe’s ability to compete internationally, particular attention must be devoted to the question of mobility with a view to strengthening the international profile of our institutions of higher education and enhancing their attractiveness, especially for the best students and scientists from throughout the world. Furthermore, an interdisciplinary exchange is just as important as the exchange between basic research and application-oriented research and between research and industry. One great success is the establishment of a separate line of funding under RFP 7 within the framework of the Marie Curie Actions. At our initiative, the programme to promote “excellence teams”, which used to come under the Marie Curie Actions and which gave excellent scientific talent the opportunity to found their own working groups, has been relocated to the European Research Council (ERC) with greatly improved financial conditions.
In the field of infrastructures, the establishment of the “European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures" (ESFRI) has meant that a body of high ranking representatives of the European research ministers has been established at European level to perform an incubator function when new research infrastructures are set up. ESFRI will draw up a European road map for research infrastructures in all disciplines in autumn 2006. At national level, Germany as the biggest operator of research infrastructures in Europe has adopted a clear position in the medium term by deciding to establish four large-scale facilities for basic research (XFEL, FAIR, HALO, High Magnetic Field Laboratory). Against this background, the 4th European Conference on Research Infrastructures, which is being organized within the framework of the German EU Council Presidency in Hamburg on 5 and 6 June 2007 in conjunction with ESFRI and the European Commission, will take a closer look at science policy issues connected with the construction and operation of research infrastructures. A particular highlight from the point of view of research policy will be the ceremonial turning of the first sod for the XFEL project on the eve of the ESFRI conference, which will bring together high ranking politicians from Germany and the partner countries in Hamburg.
Structural funds can make an important contribution to solving high-calibre political problems: the urgently needed, improved integration of the new member states in the European Research Area, among other things within the context of the 3% target; the exemption, as far as possible, of the RFP 7 from cohesion interests; and the significant strengthening of the principle of excellence as the sole criterion. One concrete aim of the German initiative during the Council Presidency is that the European Commission – in addition to the extensive, hardly readable Structural Fund regulations – should also draft a concrete guide which will illustrate on the basis of scenarios how structural funds can be used, for example as the basis for future participation in the RFP, also cumulatively.
Cooperation between universities/universities of applied sciences and industry (“responsible partnering”) is a basic prerequisite for innovations and thus for competitiveness in Europe. An essential characteristic of this cooperation is the question of managing intellectual property. Improving the application of research results and preventing the uncontrolled outflow of know-how are becoming increasingly important issues in the context of global competition and higher investments in research and innovation within the framework of the 3% target. It is therefore essential to improve the management of intellectual property rights, both in research as well as in the transfer of technology. We will therefore launch an initiative to draft a Charter dealing with intellectual property rights at public research institutions and institutions of higher education.
The German event to launch the RFP 7, which will take place in Bonn on 15 and 16 January 2007, will include an important appeal to German applicants to continue to participate in European projects (approximately 20% in RFP 6). The European Research Council will begin its work under the German Council Presidency in the first half of 2007 as an important new element of the Framework Programme. The German Research Association (DFG), in conjunction with the science organizations and in coordination with the BMBF, is organizing the event to launch the European Research Council (ERC) in Berlin from 27 to 28 February 2007. For the first time, the new Research Framework Programme will be including the key global issue of security under the thematic priority Security Research. The thematic priority of Security Research will devote itself to civilian research which clearly provides added value to the corresponding national programmes. For the first time ever, all the Specific Programmes of the Research Framework Programme will be open to cooperation with third states. Germany will take up the topic of internationalization for the CREST in order to contribute towards actively shaping the European activities within the framework of the BMBF’s internationalization strategy.
The realization of the European Research Area and the development of coherent policies to defragmentize European research presuppose agreement on joint criteria for responsible research. Increasing transnationality, the growing influence of Europe on the general framework conditions for action by national stakeholders, right up to the Europeanization of decision-making processes in individual policy areas are being accompanied by increasing demands on the governance of science. Linking up with national funding activities, the German Council Presidency will close its research policy programme with a European Conference on “Science and Its Publics”. ´The Team Presidency with Portugal and Slovenia offers the right platform for placing this issue at European level.
The BMBF intends to continue the dialogue on European identity and diversity within the framework of the celebrations to mark the founding of the European Union on 25 March 2007 and the revival of the process to implement a European constitutional treaty. The EU’s interdependencies and connecting elements will be analysed on the basis of the diversity and richness of national and regional cultures. It is intended to demonstrate how the knowledge shared by all European citizens emerges from different identities and a common understanding of European values. In the Year of the Humanities 2007, we will be holding a conference on “The Spirit of Europe” in Leipzig on 6 June 2007 to take stock of the state-of-the-art of current European studies in various disciplines in the humanities.
More information on the EU Presidency can be found on the websites of the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology (www.eu2007-wirtschaft.de) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (www.bmbf.de) as well as on the website of the Federal Ministry for Finance (www.bundesfinanzministerium.de).
