Europe – an area for research

Europe, as the historical cradle of modern science interconnected by a networkof universities, research centres, industrial laboratories and innovative SMEs, has one of the richest potentials of grey matter in the world. Each country in it has its scientific traditions, its strengths and its specific features. Since the start of the 1980s the European Union’s framework programmes have brought fresh momentum based on transnational cooperation. Benefiting from ever increasing resources and targeting priorities which have emerged from a broad-based consultation of the competent political authorities, the scientific world, the business sector, and user representatives, these programmes are putting in place the bare bones of a genuine European research area, an area at the services of its citizens as is shown by the objectives pursued, which correspond to the wide-ranging needs of a changing society.