Double-win for European science firms

By Teresa Küchler

Date: 30/06/05

Europe's anxiety to become a player in the global race for technological development received a double boost this week, as the EU fired the starting shot for its satellite navigation system and won the bid to build an experimental nuclear fusion reactor in southern France.

A joint proposal from two former rival consortia, Eurely and iNavSat, to operate the Galileo navigation system was accepted on Monday (27 June). Work will now start on the procurement procedures with lucrative multi-billion euro contracts for suppliers.

What started as a strictly European Space project, to compete with the US' Global Positioning System, has come to include China and Israel. Other countries such as Brazil, India, Russia, Australia and Mexico are lining up to join. "Of course there is a political interest in this as well as an economic," said Rainer Grohe, executive director for Galileo Joint Undertaking, the body managing the project.

The EU hopes the satellites will enable the development of new services in areas such as transport, the environment, agriculture, fisheries, road safety, energy and aviation. The project could create up to 150,000 jobs and the estimated income from running Galileo could reach €500 million by 2020.

Meanwhile, the EU won the competition with Japan for building an experimental nuclear fusion reactor in Cadarache, southern France. Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi insisted that all six ITER partners - the EU, Russia, Japan, the US, South Korea and China - would work together in the project. The European Commissioner for Research, Janez Potocnik said he would visit the French site at Cadarache on Sunday (3 July).

A joint proposal from two former rival consortia, Eurely and iNavSat, to operate the European Galileo navigation system was accepted on 27 June 2005. In the same week the EU won the competition with Japan for building an experimental nuclear fusion reactor in Cadarache, southern France.