Europe must be open to the world
By: Janez Potocnik /
Tags: innovation, Research and Development
“The creation of a single European Research Area (ERA) - to mirror the single market with the four freedoms of goods, services, people and capital that have done so much to boost competitiveness in Europe - is one of my central objectives.” - Janez Potocnik
Research, education and innovation in Europe need to be underpinned by a “fifth freedom”: the freedom and ease with which scientists and researchers can move around the European Union to pursue the best research opportunities and be able to contribute their skills and expertise for the creation of knowledge and technologies.
But it's not just about Europe; I strongly advocate an ERA which is open to the world. In the face of global challenges such as water and food shortages, the objective of the Commission is not only to foster Europe's S&T excellence but also to contribute to sustainable development worldwide.
Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for Science and Research.
We need to improve our international cooperation in science and technology not only with leading scientific nations such as the US and Japan, but also with emerging economies, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and other countries in the world that recognise the role of scientific endeavour in economic and social development.
Recently, the Commission adopted a strategic framework for a European approach to international cooperation in science and technology. The framework invites Member States to define together, rather than in isolation, priority research and technology areas where a coherent EU effort would have a greater impact.
The framework outlines core principles that should underpin our S&T cooperation with the rest of the world, in particular:
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Ensuring the coherence of Europe's international S&T strategy with the EU's other main policy objectives, such as combating climate change, securing sustainability of energy supplies, biodiversity and ecosystems;
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Encouraging closer cooperation with strategic third countries in defining geographical and topical research priorities which correspond to their needs;
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Developing the attractiveness of Europe as an essential partner for research. The European Research Council has clearly set the standard for European research, by drawing on excellence from around the world. However, highly qualified researchers trained not only in Europe but also in third countries will be the ambassadors of the knowledge society;
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Providing a platform for the European Union as a whole to work with scientists and researchers worldwide. While our international partners are attracted by Europe as a model of regional integration, they are still faced with a multitude of national funding agencies with different research priorities when they want to engage in concrete cooperation. The strategy foresees that, by pooling efforts and making a more coherent use of resources for international S&T cooperation, Europe can achieve much more for the benefit not only of its own citizens but for the citizens of the world.
I am as committed to working in partnership with Member States to widen the ERA by developing smart S&T cooperation with international partners as I am to implementing other initiatives to deepen the ERA.
All of these initiatives - modernizing our universities; jointly programming research; building new infrastructures; improving the mobility of researchers; promoting better management of IPR in public research organisations and opening the ERA to the world - have, at heart, the same philosophy and the same objective: to realize the fifth freedom, for everyone's benefit.