Brussels, 05/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - Belgium will try to make the most of its six months at the helm of the European Union to make research policy far more European, explained Brussels Research Minister Benoît Cerexhe on Friday 2 July in an interview with Canal Z. This will require huge efforts because there are few tangible applications for basic research and research developed by companies, which rarely contribute a huge amount to the EU's competitiveness. Cerexhe said there were too many public policies that did not do enough to promote collaboration, cooperation and synergy, and research needed to be far more joined-up at EU level than it is at the moment. He added that he felt that the member states were prepared to make a move in this direction in the interests of competition. The European Commission will be unveiling an EU research and innovation plan in September 2010 based on a three-pronged approach: cutting red tape; increasing the attractiveness of science as a subject for students; and increasing R&D investment to 3% of GDP (a target that was part of the Lisbon strategy). Cerexhe said although the target had not been met, the member states wanted to make progress and add a number of qualitative criteria to the 3% target because it is all well to do research but something has to actually be discovered at the end of the day. He added that assessment criteria are needed for measuring inter-country cooperation, the economic impact and results in terms of the mobility of researchers. At present, just under 9% of the EU's budget goes to research. Cerexhe said 9% is not enough and there needs to be a discussion about how much of the EU's budget should be devoted to R&D and, more importantly, a discussion about how to improve inter-country cooperation because state funding from the member states provides a massive 95% of the cash for research in the EU. The Belgian Presidency has planned a number of key events in this domain, like a meeting of EU research and industry ministers in Brussels (at the Tour and Taxis complex) on 14-16 July 2010, a conference on IT and communications in September 2010, a meeting of EU research ministers, a ministerial conference on space exploration, a ministerial conference on researcher mobility, a bio-economy conference, a marine science conference and nanotechnology events. (B.C./transl.fl)