Busquin promises to ‘think big’ on new R&D funding

Date: 27/07/00

By Peter Chapman

RESEARCH Commissioner Philippe Busquin will unveil plans this autumn to focus EU funding for R&D on large-scale strategic projects, in a bid to help the Union catch up with its US and Japanese rivals.

The money will be targeted on a range of key areas from biotechnology to aeronautics.

In a paper to be unveiled in October, the Belgian Commissioner will argue that EU funding - currently €15 billion under the Fifth Framework Programme which runs until 2002 - is spread far too thinly on a raft of small-scale projects. Instead, he insists, the Commission should prepare to 'think big' when it launches the Union's next large spending programme (the sixth framework), with priority given to fewer, bigger projects worth millions of euro apiece.

"Now we should concentrate on grand projects of value added to the Union," he said in an interview with European Voice this week. He added that the Commission must "diminish the role of smaller projects" while still providing funding for some less ambitious schemes to boost the take-up of new technology by small and medium-sized firms.

Busquin said that if the list of key priorities was drawn up now, it would include research into genomics, 'nano technology' (tiny electronic components used in devices from heart pacemakers to mobile phones), medical research covering the human brain, energy issues such as fuel cell research, aeronautics and the information society - although he said these could change between now and the start of the next programme.

One likely victim of the quest to end the current piecemeal approach towards R&D is the multi-site Joint Research Centre, the Commission's string of in-house laboratories. Busquin said he would implement the recommendation, contained in a report on the JRC by former Commissioner Etienne Davignon, that the centre should focus on its core tasks. These include nuclear safety and the need to offer member states "common expertise" on vital issues such as the traceability of genetically modified organisms in the environment or testing for compliance with environmental requirements such as the commitment to reduce CO2 emissions.

Busquin said that "several hundred jobs" were likely to be shed in other areas at the JRC, which currently employs around 2,400 workers, mainly through non-renewal of short-term contracts for temporary staff.

He added that his plans would be closely linked to separate proposals to build a 'European research area', which are also due to be fleshed out in the October policy paper. This initiative, which has already been welcomed by member states, aims to improve the coordination of national and Union-level R&D programmes to avoid duplication of work and make better use of the relatively scarce funds available at European level.

A key part of the scheme envisages the Commission taking on a new role as 'facilitator' to bolster links between researchers and national projects across the Union, and draw up a network of 'European centres of excellence'. "The framework programme is just one element, but it is not a European research policy in itself. The industrial world wants this new dimension and the scientific community wants it too," said Busquin.

EU governments have in the past been reluctant to share knowledge in strategic R&D projects, but Busquin believes they can no longer afford to close their doors to rivals in big-money projects in, for example, the aeronautics field. "The dimensions are just too big, so this would not make sense," he insisted.

The Commissioner said he was also examining ways to encourage R&D through tax breaks for research, in collaboration with his competition counterpart Mario Monti, who will ensure that any proposals comply with EU state aid rules.

Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin is to unveil plans in October 2000 which will focus EU funding for R&D on large-scale strategic projects, in a bid to help the Union catch up with its US and Japanese rivals.