eu4journalists

Science & Research

2. The European Research Area (ERA)

Issues

• Strengthen the scientific and technological base of the European Union
• Create coherent research policies in Europe
• Overcome fragmented nature of activities and the dispersal of resources

Towards the end of the 1990s, it was clear that there was no coherent policy on science and research in Europe. National and EU research policies overlapped, and the context for research activities in Europe was still largely national. The potential for joint, European research was not yet realized.

To tackle this problem, in early 2000 the European Commission proposed the creation of a European Research Area (ERA), an ‘internal market of knowledge’, for the EU. The intent was to end the fragmentation and isolation of national research efforts and the disparity of regulatory and administrative systems: the Commission wanted to bring down the barriers hampering the exchange of ideas, synergy and optimizing research spending at the European level.

The Lisbon summit in March 2000 defined the overall goal of European Research Area as “to develop appropriate mechanisms for networking national and joint research programmes on a voluntary basis around freely chosen objectives, in order to take greater advantage of the concerted resources devoted to R&D in the Member States.” Thus ERA became integral to the Lisbon strategy’s goal of boosting European competitiveness.

In 2002, the EU’s 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6) was adopted as a major element of and financial tool for achieving ERA. The 7th Framework Programme for 2007-2013 continues this function.

In 2007 and 2008, the European Commission will evaluate the workings of the EU’s internal science and research market to determine what should be done to further strengthen the ERA. The Commission will determine how easily researchers move between organizations, have their qualifications recognized and find new opportunities in the public and private research sectors – in other words, how many walls blocking effective research have been knocked down in the EU?

Launched in 2007, ERAWATCH, is an information portal collecting data on national and regional research policies, structures, key actors, research programmes and policy initiatives. It aims to help realize the ERA by increasing understanding of different research systems and policies.