Memo: The Beauty and Benefits of Science: The European Commission at AAAS 2013 Boston, USA, 14-18 February 2013

The European Commission has taken part in one of the world's biggest and prestigious science gathering worldwide, organized annually by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (http://www.aaas.org/meetings/). 2013's conference entitled "The Beauty and Benefits of Science" took place in Boston.

The Commission was represented among others by Robert-Jan Smits, Director General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission and Professor Anne Glover, the first Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission. The President of the European Research Council, Professor Helga Nowotny, also took part.

The European Commission's key messages were that Europe is open for business, open for innovation, open for research and open for researchers. Europe punches above its weight in research: the Union accounts for just 7% of the world population but is responsible for 24% of world expenditure on research, 32% of high impact publications and 32% of patent applications.