Furthering European research
Garching, 24 June 2010 – In a Statement of Intent signed today, the European Commission (EC) and the members of EIROforum formalise their desire to maintain and further develop their cooperation, for the benefit of European science. In signing this statement, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science and Iain Mattaj, Chairman of EIROforum and Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), as well as the Directors General or equivalent of the other EIROforum members, agree to cooperate to further European research in general, and the European Research Area in particular. “As leaders in our fields of scientific research we play an active role, every day, in turning the European Research Area into a reality. At EIROforum we therefore have considerable experience and expertise, which we will strive to make available to the Commission for the benefit of Europe as a whole,” Mattaj says. The pledge of mutual consultation and collaboration signed today in Garching, Germany, at the offices of the European Southern Observatory reinforces the aims of the initial Statement of Intent signed by the EC and EIROforum in 2003. The areas covered by this enhanced collaboration range from research programming to e-science, including human resources and training and mobility of researchers; research infrastructures; intellectual property and knowledge sharing; international cooperation in research; science education and communication. For more information on each of the EIROforum organisations, please contact the press officers: CERN Renilde Vanden Broeck Renilde.Vanden.Broeck@cern.ch Tel: +41 22 767 21 41 EFDA Nick Holloway nick.holloway@ccfe.ac.uk Tel: +44 1235 466 232 EMBL Sonia Furtado sonia.furtado@embl.de Tel: +49 6221 387 8263 ESA Franco Bonacina franco.bonacina@esa.int Tel. + 33 1 53 69 77 13 ESO Henri Boffin hboffin@eso.org Tel: +49 89 3200 6276 ESRF Montserrat Capellas capellas@esrf.fr Tel: +33 476 88 26 63 ILL Françoise Vauquois vauquois@ill.fr Tel: +33 476 20 71 07