Descartes prize recognises more than just scientific excellence - Busquin
European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin claimed at the awarding of the Descartes science prize on 8 November that the prizes rewarded a key facet in scientific research that is often overlooked- transEuropean teamwork. 'This new prize recognises successful cross-border teamwork and European networking, which is often a determining factor of outstanding quality of science in Europe, but not normally a selection criterion in scientific prizes,' said Mr Busquin. The three transEuropean prizes were awarded to new methods of studying chemical reaction kinetics at very low temperatures (involving academics from the university of Birmingham, UK and the university of Rennes, France), synthesis and application of a new family of polymeric self-oriented transistors for electronic circuits (involving academics from from Eindhoven, the Netherlands and Denmark, Germany, and the UK), and for discovering the link between the processes that repair genetic material and the means of how these are turned into proteins (involving the UK, France, the Netherlands and Italy). They were awarded totals of 120,000 euro, 300,000 euro and 240,000 euro respectively. The prize represents an opportunity for scientific research teams to gain recognition not just for the quality of their work but also for their collaborative efforts. Over a hundred networks entered the competition and these were boiled down to eight finalists, with a grand jury deciding the final three winners from this short list. The jury included eminent figures from politics, academia and the private and public sectors and was chaired by Yves Michot, former president of Aerospatiale-MATRA.