‘Research, Education & Innovation’ – says Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner

If the EU wants to build sustainable leadership, it must exploit the knowledge triangle of creation, transmission and use through research, education and innovation, says Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for Science and Research.

Speaking on ‘the future of R&D [research and development]  as a factor for European Competitiveness’ on 2 February, Mr Potocnik explained that the EU aims to achieve leadership and competitiveness through a Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)  geared towards levering knowledge for growth, and more focused on the needs of industry and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) ; new migration policies for attracting knowledge workers; a revised Community framework for state aid for R&D and fiscal incentives for R&D.

In FP7, collaborative projects should be even further geared towards the needs of industry than they were in FP6, believes Mr Potocnik. He also sees the Joint European Technology Initiatives as champions for knowledge for growth.

Excellence in the research base will be promoted through the new European Research Council for basic research; infrastructures will be developed through a strengthened infrastructures programme, targeting, among others, equipment of industrial relevance, while the training and career development of researchers will be supported through a further enhanced ‘Marie Curie’ scheme, explained the Commissioner. Furthermore, he added, ‘the convergence of national research programmes will be enhanced through a reinforced scheme of support for their coordination, the so-called ‘ERA-Net’ scheme.

Read the full text of this story, from Cordis News, here.

News Source: Cordis News