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The President of the European Commission has recently delivered a speech at the conference “Choose Europe for Science” in Sorbonne University in Paris devoted to analyzing “complicated role of science in present world” when the basic investment aspects in fundamental, free and open research are questioned. The race for “scientific perfection” has not been in the EU’s favor; but people in Europe are still, so-to-say “more happy” than in other global regions that excel in R&D.
Background
The Commission President started with acknowledging that “Europe will always choose science, and Europe will always make the case for the world’s scientists to Choose Europe”. She reiterated that scientific endeavor runs deep through European history: from Pythagoras and Aristotle in Ancient Greece to Galileo and Copernicus in the Renaissance period or to Koch or Pasteur in latter centuries. The oldest university in Europe was founded in Bologna, where teaching started as far back as 1088.
Besides, Europe was the home of the world scientific revolution which saw one of the most consequential transformations in human history – thanks to breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy, biology and much more. That tradition allows Europe to have the second highest scientific output in the world; it is home to over 2 million researchers – one quarter of the world’s total (another million is in the US with a much less population).
Europe leads in green tech, health, economics, business and social sciences; it excels in areas of scientific research and technologies that are pivotal to the EU’s future – from aerospace to robotics, to automotive and engineering, to biotechnologies and pharmaceuticals, to name a few.
However, the EU wants to make Europe at the forefront of fundamental research and the leader in priority technologies from AI to quantum, from space, semiconductors and microelectronics to digital health, genomics and biotechnology. The Commission’s intention is to attract scientists, researchers, academics and highly skilled workers: hence, the EU program called “Choose Europe Initiative”.
European advantages in science
The President underlined some advantages:
The first among advantages is a “sustained and stable EU-wide investment both from the EU institutions and the member states”: the EU runs the world’s largest international research program Horizon Europe with a budget of about € 93 billion. And during last 40 years, the EU has funded 33 Nobel Prize laureates.
European support has made possible breakthroughs in genome sequencing and mRNA vaccines; it spurred the development of cutting-edge microchips, and even led to the first image of a black hole. These examples show that the return on investment in science is unparalleled: hence the EU has world-class research infrastructure – from particle physics to molecular biology, from space exploration to nuclear fusion; this helps make Europe a leader in fundamental research, she added.
The second advantage is availability of a world-leading super-computing infrastructure (EuroHPC), with huge investment in AI, quantum and digital research.
Finally, the EU has had a proud tradition of open and collaborative science: European scientific community upholds the principles of open science, open education and data sharing; hence, the EU Research Council is run not by politicians, but by scientists and for scientists. Besides, the EU Horizon Europe program remains an attractive spot for global cooperation: from the UK to Switzerland, from Canada to South Korea, more and more countries want to join European research facilities. Scientists from across the world collaborating in Europe: e.g. CERN founded 70 years ago to carry out cutting-edge research and uniting other nations’ efforts; it is today the world-leading laboratory for high-energy particle physics and related technologies. Researchers from over 100 nationalities are working together at CERN for the world human interests. “This is how science should work, and it is why scientific freedom and collaboration must always be at the heart of our institutions and our infrastructure:, noted the President.
All sources and references from: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/da/speech_25_1130
Priorities in progress
The Commission President underlined some priorities to streamline EU-wide science and research. The first priority is to ensure that science in Europe remains open and free: the EU is going do everything to uphold it, now more than ever before. Strengthening the free movement of knowledge and data across Europe, on par with the four basic integration freedoms: for goods, service, people and capital across the Single Market. Besides, the Commission intends to enshrine freedom of scientific research into law in a new European Research Area Act: as threats rise across the world, Europe will not compromise on its principles; it will remain the home of academic and scientific freedom, acknowledged the President.
The second element of “Choose Europe” is financing science and making it an attractive side for investment by offering the right incentives. The President has announced the intention of putting forward a new €500 million package for 2025-2027 to make Europe a magnet for researchers. This will help support the best and the brightest researchers and scientists from Europe and around the world.
Besides, the EU is going to create a new seven-year ‘super grant’ under the ERC to help offer a longer-term perspective to the very best researchers: through the ERC, the Commission is already supporting researchers who relocate to Europe with a top-up beyond their grant. The EU is now doubling the amount they can receive this year, which will be extended for 2026 and 2027.
The third element is the EU’s prioritizing the “growth of the next generation of scientists”: it will increase support to early career scientists through the “Choose Europe” program; those who choose Europe will benefit from higher allowances and longer contracts during next two years, with targeted incentives in frontier fields, like AI.
In the mid- and long-term investment: together with the member states, the Commission wants to reach the 3% of GDP target for investment in research and development by 2030; these ambitious proposals on research and innovation funding will be included in the next EU long-term budget.
The fourth element in “Choose Europe for Science” is the need to fast-track the researchers’ pathway: from breakthrough science to transformative innovation and business opportunities; with this in mind, the EU will put forward a first ever European Innovation Act and a Startup and Scale up Strategy, to remove regulatory and other barriers, and to facilitate access to venture capital for innovative European startups and scale-ups. The EU wants to make it easier and more attractive to come to Europe for research by providing a better link up of researchers with research institutions. The EU will speed up the process around entering and staying in Europe: there is already an excellent platform that links researchers worldwide with thousands of jobs in Europe, as well as providing visa support and career guidance, she noted.
Finally, the Commission President asserted the idea of supporting public and private institutions to better link up with the highly skilled workers and researchers, as well as to speed up and simplify the entry for top researchers: it means that “bringing the best from across the world is about bringing out the best of Europe”, she concluded.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/da/speech_25_1130
Our comment
First, it is vital to see the experts’ opinion on science and research perspectives in Europe and the world; they have been specified in detail in two comprehensive reports in 2024.
See, for example: https://www.integrin.dk/2024/09/09/eu-wide-competitiveness-challenges-and-perspectives-in-draghi-report/ ; and https://www.integrin.dk/2024/10/31/new-european-competitiveness-deal-a-declaration-is-on-the-way/
Secondly, some statistics on financing research and development (R&D); e.g. the global R&D has grown close to $3 trillion in 2023: with the US on the first place with about $784 bn, followed by China with $723 bn, the EU with $ 410 bn and Japan with $183bn.
Top 10 Countries with most expenditure on as a share of GDP in %: Israel – 6.3, South Korea – 5.0, Taiwan – 4.0, Sweden – 3.6, the US – 3.4, Japan – 3.4, Belgium – 3.3 and Switzerland -3.3.
Reference to: https://www.wipo.int/web/global-innovation-index/w/blogs/2024/end-of-year-edition
Thirdly, on innovation: according to the Global Innovation Index (2024), the following states are ranked best: Switzerland and Sweden in Europe, the US and Singapore in South East Asia.
Among the recognized methods for promotion R&D are: – identifying specific social problems that should be addressed; – establishing R&D focus areas and programs; – promoting R&D focus areas and programs; – presenting solution prototypes, and – supporting the implementation of prototypes. The world forecast for 2024 was $2.53 trillion invested globally in R&D, which represents an 8.3% increase over the 2022 forecast.
One of the main R&D challenges is uncertainty and ambiguity: one of the main characteristics of R&D projects is that they are often based on novel or unproven ideas, technologies or markets. This means that there is a high degree of uncertainty and ambiguity about the feasibility, scope, cost, time and quality of the project outcomes.
Thus, the best R&D strategy involves researching national/global markets and corresponding customer needs, as well as developing new and improved products and services to fit these needs.
Lastly, about innovations and perspectives (it has to be noted that presently the R&D concept has turned into research and innovation, i.e. R&I): among ten most innovative countries in the world, six are from Europe: Switzerland, Sweden, U.S., Singapore, the UK, South Korea, Finland, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-worlds-most-innovative-countries-in-2024/
Digitalization and automation will play a crucial role in the future of R&D: therefore national leaders must embrace modern digital-automation technologies to streamline processes, reduce costs and increase efficiency. This includes automating routine tasks, data analysis and even some aspects of experimental research.
Then, a final remark: scientific progress is not the aim in itself; its ultimate goal is to make peoples’ life better – i.e. in the “pursuit of happiness” as is declared in some countries basic law. But the social inequality is still growing around the world, and the global happiness index clearly shows that the system of “wild capitalism” does not provide the right solution. Among top 10 happiest countries in 2024 eight have been from Europe: Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Australia. The European growth model based on “social market economy” principles seems more adaptable to peoples’ happiness. As the report concludes, that not only “happiness is a fundamental human goal”, but it provides an “understanding, drivers and trends that help creating societies that prioritize well-being”.
Source and citation from: https://placebrandobserver.com/world-happiest-countries-2024/
Besides, the EU not only cannot win the “race for perfection” in science (due to a different style of “European capitalism”); may be its just not necessary. Most scientific achievements during last centuries have been for increasing well-being and social justice, which in the last extent is the ultimate goal of scientific progress; e.g. the EU states are innovative enough, as seen in the reference above.