Brussels, 27/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - On the occasion of the last Competitiveness Council under Spanish EU Presidency, held on Wednesday 26 May, Spanish Science and Innovation Minister Cristina Garmendia said the programme drawn up by her government on R&D and innovation had been a success. “The Spanish Presidency believes the entire programme set out at the start of its term has been successfully achieved”, Garmendia said. During the meeting, ministers backed the Spanish proposal consisting of giving the European Research Area a social dimension, putting science to work in the battle against poverty and social exclusion. The Spanish minister also pointed out that, over this six-month period, the EU has made progress on issues relating to scientific excellence, researchers' careers and mobility and the management of infrastructures. Ministers have decided to move forward towards simplification of R&D programmes and innovation in the aim of making them more effective for users, researchers and SMEs. In its conclusions, the Council acknowledges the urgent need to rethink, in depth, the way European research and innovation programmes are conceived and implemented in order to make them simple, effective and compatible, and to meet the requirements of the scientific community, enterprise and society in general.
The Council also adopted conclusions on the creation of an innovative Europe. Five key areas of action are mentioned: - finance, especially with the promotion of appropriate incentives to attract private investors; - markets, by increasing the share of public markets devoted to innovative products, processes and services and doing away with obstacles on innovative markets; - governance, by proceeding to simplification of programmes and instruments that support research and innovation and by transforming knowledge into a real commercial advantage; - regional priorities, especially by providing adequate support in favour of innovation for operators at regional level; - and people, especially by facilitating the acquisition of skills that meet market requirements, by promoting the entrepreneurial spirit and by attracting talented researchers. The Commission has announced its intention to submit a European research and innovation plan that the European Council will have an opportunity to study this autumn. The Council also gave CREST (the scientific and technical research committee) a new name, CEER or the European research area committee, in order to better reflect on the new dimension of its role, namely that of a committee for strategic guidance in the context of European Research Area management. The EUROPE 2020 strategy for growth and employment, to be adopted by the European Council on 17 and 18 June, is hoping that investment (both private and public) will reach 3% of GDP in 2020 in the field of research and knowledge. Nearly 106,000 took part in a survey poll on the internet to choose what they considered to be the most urgent of 14 challenges, each proposed by a well-known personality. More effective energy storage was the priority challenge facing science between now and 2030. The challenge with the second most votes was the creation of artificial organs in laboratory to replace damaged organs. And, finally, the third most votes went to the proposal aimed at creating robots in order to simplify the way we live. (B.C./transl.jl)