Informal Competitiveness Meeting - Research Seminar outcome
Group photo
© MESR / Philippe Devernay
- from: 17.07.2008
- to: 18.07.2008
- In: Versailles, Jouy-en-Josas
The meeting provided the opportunity to work on "Vision 2020" of the European Research Area (ERA), which will be proposed for adoption by the Competitiveness Council in December 2008, within the scope of the Ljubljana Process (launched in April 2008 by the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union). This process aims to reinforce the European Research Area by better defining the goals of "Vision 2020" during the French Presidency, and developing its governance during the next two EU Council presidencies (Czech and Swedish).
One of the main objectives of the current transformation of the European Research Area is to foster the closer coordination on a European scale of research work performed by the individual countries to build greater efficiency and thus help the growth of knowledge.
The meeting was structured around thematic workshops, in which the European ministers focused on the future of European research from the angle of four major challenges it is facing: the food crisis and its consequences on agriculture and our management of ecosystems, climate change and the need for alternative sources of energy, society's transformation into a knowledge society, and Europe's ageing population.
The ministers' discussions first identified the shared issues for which effective coordination of European research could be quickly implemented. These include:
- adapting farming methods to climate change and food security,
- implementing the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) and its six industrial initiatives,
- effectively managing embedded computing, future developments and uses of the internet, respecting privacy,
- implementing national Alzheimer's plans and their European coordination with a view to the development of widescale prevention trials.
These different subjects will figure among the topics proposed for inclusion as strategic policies in "Vision 2020" of the European Research Area, before the end of 2008.
The ministers also stressed the urgent need to equip the European Research Area with instruments that are indispensable for its competitiveness and expressed the wish to:
- speed up the process of the adoption of a legal system of patents and the creation of the Community patent. The Trio Presidency undertook to work on this issue;
- promote effective interaction at all levels between education, research and innovation, combining the public and private sectors as often as possible;
- improve Europe-wide promotion and cooperation in research;
- coordinate public resources (human resources, infrastructure, budgets, etc.) that can be deployed at regional, national and Community levels by encouraging shared programming.
This meeting helped to develop the themes that could constitute "Vision 2020" of the European Research Area, which Valérie Pécresse recalled in citing the four pillars of this vision:
- affirming the vocation of the European Research Area to be present on all the fronts of research;
- organising governance of the European Research Area that is strategic, receptive to the needs of citizens and respects European values;
- favour the mobilisation of the resources of the European Research Area (human resources, research infrastructure, etc.) and the sharing of knowledge;
- strengthening synergies between the Community and intergovernmental levels of the European Research Area.
Informal Competitiveness Meeting (Announcement)
- Updated: 10.09.2008
