Report of EU CREST meeting (scientific and technical research), action plan

Brussels, 17 May 2002

Draft summary conclusions of the 282nd meeting of the Scientific and Technical Research Committee (CREST), held in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 26- March 2002. Note to CREST delegations. Scientific and Technical Research Committee ­ CREST Secretariat. Brussels, 15 May 2002 (document CREST 1203/02). Full text

1. ADOPTION OF THE DRAFT AGENDA

The Committee adopted the agenda as set out in telex nº T16EN of 11 March 2002. The French and the German delegation protested against the lack of interpretation for this meeting.

2. APPROVAL OF THE DRAFT SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS OF THE 281st MEETING

The Committee approved, with some amendments, the summary conclusions (see doc. CREST 1201/1/02 REV 1).

3. INFORMATION FROM THE PRESIDENCY AND THE COMMISSION

3.1 INFORMATION FROM THE SPANISH PRESIDENCY, INCLUDING DEBRIEFING ON THE 11 MARCH RESEARCH COUNCIL AND ON THE BARCELONA SUMMIT

The Spanish Presidency informed the Committee about the outcome of the Research Council on 11 March, relating mainly to the guidance provided by Ministers for steering further work on the implementing decisions (rules for participation and specific programmes) for the sixth research framework programmes (2002-2006).

The Presidency also informed the Committee on the outcome of the Barcelona European Council held on 15 and 16 March as far as research matters were concerned.

- The European Council agreed that overall spending on R&D and innovation in the Union should be increased, with the aim of approaching 3% of GDP by 2010 (two-thirds of this new investment having to come from the private sector);

- Furthermore, the Council noted the Commission's intention to propose measures in the spring of 2003 to integrate better innovation into a European knowledge area, with the aim of improving the use of intellectual property rights across Europe, further developing and strengthening private investment and the use of risk capital in research and increasing networking between business and the science base;

- The European Council also reaffirmed the importance of the Community Patent and invited the Council to reach a common political approach at its meeting in May;

- Finally, the European Council asked the Council to examine before June 2002 the Commission's communication "Life Sciences and Biotechnology ­ a strategy for Europe". It asked the Council and the Commission to develop measures and a timetable which would enable Community businesses to exploit the potential of biotechnology, while taking due account of the precautionary principle and meeting ethical and social concerns. The Commission was invited to report on progress in advance of the spring European Council in 2003.

3.2 INFORMATION FROM THE COMMISSION

Against the background of the Barcelona European Council's renewed call to Members States to reduce the overall level of State aid as a percentage of GDP by 2003 and onwards, the Commission informed the Committee that it would soon be presenting to the Council its proposal regarding State aid for research.

The Commission also drew attention to the fact that, following the conclusions of the Barcelona summit, the Council (Transport) had now approved the GALILEO programme.

With regard to the sixth framework programme, the Commission highlighted the efforts made by the European Parliament and the Council to reach an agreement in May and welcomed the input provided by the Economic and Social Committee and the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB). It further drew attention to the recently launched invitations for expressions of interest, to the progress of the Model Contract Working Group and to the on-going thematic seminars.

On 4 April, a first informal trialogue will be held between the Council, the Commission and the Parliament to discuss the EP rapporteur's draft amendments (second reading) to the framework programme.

On 12 April, the Commission will organise a meeting with personal representatives of Ministers from candidate countries in order to discuss procedures for their participation in the framework programmes.

Following a request from the Swedish delegation, the Commission circulated a note on the working groups set up by EURAB to deal with certain aspects of the European Research Area (ERA).

4. PRESENTATION OF SPANISH NATIONAL RTD POLICY

The Spanish Presidency gave a comprehensive presentation of national RTD policy, emphasising the convergence between European research efforts in general and Spanish RTD policy. In particular, Spanish RTD policy now reflects the research priorities of the EC framework programme. Spain provides generous fiscal incentives to the business community for research purposes.

5/6. CREST OPINION ON THE S/T CONTENT OF THE "8TH PRIORITY"

The rapporteur, Mr Monard, presented his draft report, which was based on the mandate given to CREST to report on the scientific and technological content of the "8th priority".

Delegations welcomed the draft report, which broadly reflected the various contributions from national CREST authorities.

A limited number of changes were suggested, after which the draft report was approved by the Committee.

7. OPENING UP OF NATIONAL RTD PROGRAMMES

The Spanish Presidency presented three documents relating to the opening up of national RTD programmes, i.e.: a note by the Spanish Presidency which had served as the starting point for the ministerial debate at Girona in January 2002, and two further documents drawn up by the former Spanish CREST representative Prof. Gonzalo Léon: one from January 2002, which accompanied the Girona document, and a second one (being an update from March 2002 of the original Girona document), which was drawn up for the purpose of discussion by the Committee.

Attention was drawn to the agreement concerning the general principles underlying the opening of national RTD programmes which were included in earlier CREST reports, i.e., voluntary application of the opening process, reciprocity amongst Member States, progressive implementation and neutrality in funding.

As to the "opening levels", earlier CREST documents had identified three levels: 1. Increasing mutual knowledge through information exchange; 2. Stimulating cross-border Cupertino with contacts between funded projects in different countries or during the evaluation process; 3.

Cross-funding of open national RTD programmes.

Initially, the Presidency suggested concentrating on the first two action lines proposed in the accompanying Girona document, i.e., to create a network of national RTD programme managers as well as to resort to a posteriori clustering of thematically-related projects within different national RTD programmes.

The Committee, which had received an (informal) mandate from the Girona meeting to report on this subject, welcomed the Presidency initiative, emphasising the importance of a practical, bottom-up approach and of flexibility in future cooperation, as well as the need to look at activities in this area which are already going on.

Following discussions on the actions lines proposed by the Presidency, it was decided that CREST delegates would explore their national RTD programme managers' interest in:

setting up groups to exchange updated information on
- research strategies, policy objectives and priorities
- implementation procedures (calls for proposals, instruments etc.)
- evaluation and selection mechanisms
- programmes and projects follow-up
- knowledge transfer procedures
- comprehensive information on projects (project coordinators, summaries etc.)
- identification of potential evaluators in Member States;

clustering ex post thematically-related funded projects within the different national RTD programmes;
and, possibly also,
taking part in the other action lines set out in the document tabled by the Presidency in Girona (i.e., extension of international evaluation procedures of proposals in some agreed programmes included in the list of pilot exercises and, secondly, to launch calls for proposals on a limited number of common priority lines)

The areas concerned would include, but are not restricted to:
- marine sciences
- plant genomics
- complexity and complex systems
- chemistry
- astrophysics.

Delegations were invited to provide information concerning the approach preferred by their Member State, as well as concerning persons to be contacted. They were also asked to express their possible willingness to take the lead in one or several areas. Information should be provided to the Council Secretariat by the end of April at the latest.

The next CREST meeting on 24 May would discuss the way forward in the opening of national programmes on the basis of reactions from delegations.

8. BENCHMARKING OF NATIONAL RTD POLICIES

The Commission presented its staff working paper entitled "Benchmarking national RTD policies: first results". Benchmarking is intended to identify the best practises in Member States for a mutual learning process. The first exercise has been limited to five areas, i.e., human resources in RTD, public and private investment in RTD, the impact of RTD on competitiveness and employment, S&T productivity and the promotion of RTD culture and public understanding of science.

According to the first results of the benchmarking exercise:

- there is evidence that all Member States have made efforts to increase the level and effectiveness of their RTD investment. However, despite the progress made, both the level of investment and its current growth rate are too low to achieve the Lisbon goals;

- the shortfall in RTD investment is principally due to underinvestment in the private sector;

- in terms of human resources, current trends show that there is a risk that they will become inadequate for future needs. As human resources are the basis for efficient functioning and interacting RTD and innovation systems through all stages, from basic science to knowledge absorption by enterprises, they deserve prompt attention in all Member States.

In its presentation, the Commission emphasised several worrying developments in human resources, namely the number of researchers is lower than in the USA and Japan and European researchers tend to leave for more rewarding careers elsewhere.

For practical reasons, discussions on this subject were postponed until the 5 July CREST meeting in Brussels.

9. SCIENCE AND SOCIETY ACTION PLAN

Following the CREST report on Science and Society of 6 June 2001, the Committee held a discussion on the Science and Society action plan presented by the Commission on 6 December 2001.

The Commission, presenting the action plan, pointed to the encouraging reactions it had received from certain Member States and called for further reactions from the others. It stressed that Member States themselves had an active role to play in promoting the science and society interface (the Commission would mainly act as a catalyst and verify the European added value of the different actions). The Commission also stressed that duplication of efforts had to be avoided. Information on more precise time-tables for the various actions, as well as the budget available for the actions, was difficult to provide at this stage. In 2004 an evaluation would be carried out on the results achieved so far.

Delegations generally welcomed the action plan, acknowledging its importance and practical relevance for bringing science and society more closely together. Delegations also drew attention to avoiding the risk of duplication with national efforts already under way, which had to be coordinated. Existing actions, such as the work by the Helsinki Group on Women and Science, had to be linked up to those outlined in the action plan. The OECD had also developed some activities in this field. These should not be duplicated by Community action.

Attention was further drawn to the ethical aspects of the science and society relationship, to the importance of education and science and the dissemination of the results of scientific research. Delegations expressed reticence on the Commission's suggestion to set up a High Level Group to provide external advice for the implementation of the Action Plan; this idea should be further explored in the forthcoming CREST meetings.

The Belgian delegation in particular drew attention to a broadcasting initiative it had taken, following the ideas put forward in its reflection paper "Science, technology and innovation in the media". A document had already been distributed to Member States and expressions of interest to join in this initiative could be sent to the Council secretariat by 15 April 2002 at the latest. Some delegations (Dutch and Austrian) had already shown their interest, while others (Danish and French) expressed a willingness to participate in this initiative.

The Norwegian delegation announced the establishment of a fund for an international prize in mathematics to commemorate the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel.

The French delegation distributed a table showing their present position with regard to 38 action lines proposed by the Commission. Other delegations were encouraged by the Commission to draw up a similar overview.

Finally it was decided to appoint a rapporteur (Dr Mariann SAMUELSON, CREST member and director at the Swedish Ministry of Education and Science) to elaborate a CREST report on the Action Plan. The following time-table was agreed:

- Input from CREST Members for the report on the action plan should be sent by 12 April 2002 at the latest to the rapporteur, the Council Secretariat and the Commission;

- The next CREST meeting on 24 May would discuss procedural aspects relating to the Science and Society action plan. At this meeting an informal working group would also present the reactions to the Belgian Media initiative;

- The CREST meeting on 5 July 2002 would discuss the substance of the Science and Society action plan in greater detail;

- The CREST meeting on 11-13 September would be expected to finalise the CREST report on the action plan;

10. ANY OTHER BUSINESS

In reply to a request concerning the dates of CREST meetings during the second half of 2002, the Danish delegation said that these would be finalised shortly. A CREST meeting was planned to take place in Denmark from 11 to 13 September 2002.

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