The laboratory commissioner

"I want to move attention from the front page to pages further back in the newspaper." Reporters whose name never makes it to page one have a fan in Janez Potocnik.

The European commissioner for science and research says he would like to remind people that the real news is usually hidden far back in the newspaper, after reports on controversial decisions and political infighting.

"Often the questions you read about on page one and two have an answer on page ten, where science and research are explained," says the 48-year-old Slovene.

"The policy which we are dealing with [in DG Research] has major consequences in major areas and on the EU citizen’s way of understanding them."

Potocnik says he made it his mission to highlight these links between life and the laboratory when he took over as research commissioner in 2004.

"When I joined the Commission something was missing," he explains. "I wanted to connect research questions to the reality in which we live. I wanted to show the connections between research innovations and the economy, quality of life, or climate change."

He says recent EU developments like the energy strategy released in January have gone some way towards making this easier. Policies expected to follow the package will make Europeans see that there are no large-scale alternatives to imported energy and no solutions to global warming, unless we invest in searching for new technologies.

Energy efficiency is the only short-term tool in attempts to reduce energy consumption, he says. And even there widespread research will be needed before there are enough efficient products on the market.

"In areas like clean coal and hydrogen there’s a lot more to do before we will see a major energy breakthrough," adds the commissioner.

Two years ago governments agreed that EU investment in research and development should be 3% of gross domestic product by 2010. The money was intended to help countries meet their goal of becoming ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world’, under the Lisbon Agenda.

Average funding today is still less than 2% but Potocnik hopes that today’s fears over energy will lead to more money being invested in looking for the necessary technological breakthroughs.

"Increased investment is not the ultimate answer, but without it we can’t even look for the answer," he says.

Energy innovations could also come from the EU’s 7th framework programme for research (FP7), says the commissioner, explaining that energy is a "leitmotif" running through all policy areas funded by the programme.

"We need more investment, wherever it comes from," says Potocnik. "But if it comes from the EU that’s a major advantage: that way it’s easier to combine our efforts and find the answer together."

Improving European research co-ordination is another priority for Potocnik and one that could help find the answers.

A green paper to update a 2000 communication on a European Research Area is expected in April. The commissioner says it will look at some of the social implications of encouraging researchers to work closely together.

However good the links between research institutes across Europe become, he suggests, differences between 27 national tax systems and the problem of transferring pensions across borders can put researchers off working in any member state other than their own. "If a researcher cannot move he will not move," he says.

With luck and a bit of help from Potocnik, researchers will be able to move from London to Ljubljana, science will solve the energy crisis and readers will turn to page ten.

"I want to move attention from the front page to pages further back in the newspaper." Reporters whose name never makes it to page one have a fan in Janez Potocnik.