Prodi endorses Commission's research policy - past and future
In a summary of the European Commission's activities since last September, Romano Prodi has expressed his satisfaction with his team of Commissioners' activities. 'My Commission has worked hard and well. We are fulfilling the promises we made on taking office. Europe has a busy agenda and great challenges before it. I am proud of my team and what it has accomplished so far,' said Mr Prodi. The summary includes a reference to the planned 'European Research Area', the ERA. It highlights the concrete initiatives which have been launched with regard to this, including open coordination of research policies based on benchmarking, the forthcoming mapping of scientific excellence in Europe, next October's proposals on bringing science closer to society and establishing scientific and technical reference needed by decision-makers. In addition, the summary claims that a new approach is needed to help create the conditions for an ERA. 'The Commission is currently drawing up guidelines which it will be submitting in October,' the document claims. This is in line with statements made by Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin recently. In a recent press interview, Mr Busquin claimed that a focus on 'grand projects with value added for the Union' should be adopted, which implicitly acknowledges that smaller projects will be diminished. These larger projects should centre on areas such as nanotechnology, energy issues, genomics and the information society, according to the Commissioner. Further details will be available in Mr Busquin's October policy paper.