Euroabstracts focuses on European technology policy
The European Union should support more basic research, promote greater movement of researchers between countries, place more emphasis on technical standards and, above all, make diffusion of know-how, especially to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) a first priority. That is the conclusion of the opening article in the main feature of the latest issue of Euroabstracts, the free-of-charge European Commission, DG XIII, publication of the "Innovation and Participation of SMEs" programme. The article is a review of the 260-page book "Technology policy in the European Union" (ISBN 0 333 71697 7) published by Macmillan Press last year. The magazine also contains a review of the 240-page book by European Commissioner Edith Cresson "Innover ou Subir" ("Innovate or Go Under"), in which she develops her thesis that innovation must be social not just economic. She maintains that education and training systems need to respond to three requirements: - To give everyone the wherewithal for their own harmonious personal development; - To prepare people for the world of work; - To enable young people to enter society by giving everyone an equal chance of accessing the best places in the hierarchy. Other topics covered in this February 1999 issue of Euroabstracts include: - Inventing to order (Techniques, known as TRIZ, can be used to encourage inspirational ideas, particularly in the creation of inventions); - Jobs from technology (about the OECD jobs strategy); - Increasing the relevance of European Union research (on the five -year assessment of the European community RTD Framework Programmes); - National strategies to score a global goal (based on a report of an international symposium); - Predators bearing gifts (an OECD publication covering internationalisation of industrial R&D); - The way the Web works (A review of Wilde's WWW); - Toasting ÉCLAIR (setting out the final results of the life sciences and technologies programme that spawned 4 patent applications, 200 scientific publications, 10 commercial products and 42 research networks).