Brussels, 15/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 July, the European Commission proposed that member states adopt a new approach of "joint programming" to tackle the current compartmentalisation undermining the efficiency of Europe's research. In this way, national research, which currently makes up 85% of all European public research funding, will have more impact if member states pool their resources and better coordinate their efforts. According to the European commissioner for science and research, "challenges such as food safety, healthcare, marine ecosystems and biodiversity, climate change and energy are not confined to member states borders, so research should be done jointly, and not simply on a national scale”. Janez Potoènik said that although national programmes are obviously necessary, they can result in duplication and may lead to a shortfall in the critical mass of resources needed to make a significant impact.
The Commission communication, "Towards joint programming in Research: Working together to tackle common challenges more effectively" proposes that member states first identify a limited number of key challenges on which to focus their efforts, and then agree on a common vision, develop and implement a Strategic Research Agenda for each area. The communication stresses that joint programming will be a voluntary process and need not involve all member states in each specific initiative. It can relate to the coordination of existing national programmes, or the setting up of entirely new ones, pooling resources and collectively monitoring and reviewing progress. The Commission's role is that of a facilitator and the implementation may or not may involve Community financing. If the EU Council of Ministers agrees with the proposal, joint programming initiatives should be underway by 2010. The European Strategic Energy Technology Plan and the foreseen Marine Research Strategy provide pilot experiences for this initiative. Commissioner Potoènik continued: "Joint programming has the potential to become a mechanism at least as important as the framework programmes in the European research landscape and to change the very way in which Europeans think about research." (O.L./transl.rh)