The European Research Area: Evolving concept, implementation challenges

This publication aims to provide an overview of the European Research Area concept, based on an historical perspective of more than 40 years of European policies in research. The paper focuses on the role of the different European institutions in modelling the concept and in addressing the barriers to its implementation.

The 'European Research Area' (ERA) is the policy concept at the heart of the common European policy for research. The framing and adoption of ERA in 2000 was the result of a lengthy process started in 1972. Proposed by the European Commission, the concept has been reshaped by the Council of the European Union in 2008 and influenced by the involvement of stakeholders since 2012.

The commitment of the Member States is now at the heart of the process of developing ERA. More than 40 years after the first steps to establish a common research policy, and 16 years after the formulation of the concept, ERA remains a work in progress, as both a complex concept to define and a challenging one to implement.

Author: Vincent Reillon.

• Primary Source

European Parliament: Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union: Publications available via the EU Bookshop http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/directorate-general-for-internal-policies-of-the-union-cbf.cKABstF7wAAAEjwYYY4e5K/

European Parliament: European Parliamentary Research Service: In-Depth Analysis, March 2016: The European Research Area: Evolving concept, implementation challenges http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2016/579097/EPRS_IDA(2016)579097_EN.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.htm

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