Three Nobel laureates are among dozens of European industrialists, scientists and politicians in Dublin today and tomorrow focusing on new strategies to drive business and economic growth in the EU. Their aim is to develop a new initiative to enable Europe to catch up on what is become a huge Research and Development gap with the US.
Speaking at a symposium in Dublin on 'Europe's Search for Excellence in Basic Research', Tanaiste Mary Harney said the best approach to improving the EU's research and development performance was to generate competition among the best researchers.
'I believe in the powerful influence that EU-wide funding of scientific research can bring to bear, where our best research scientists are continually subject to international peer review and benchmarking,' she said. 'We should pay particular attention to nurturing new research talent', she added.
The Tanaiste said that in 1995 the US public and private sectors combined were spending €15 billion more on R&D than the EU, but by 2001 the gap had widened to €140 billion with 80% of the gap due to lower business investment in the EU.
There is an estimated 400,000 EU science and technology graduates currently in the US, some 90,000 of whom are working in the research area.
