Main speaker session 1.7
Globalisation and the internationalisation of science
Globalisation is driving industrial development towards ever greater global interconnection and this multi-polar business world is increasingly influencing and shaping policies beyond the limited confines of trade and industry. Societal issues, in areas such as in climate change, energy security and environmental policies to name just a few, are increasingly and inevitably framed in a global context. Many of the resulting scientific challenges that we now face are of such proportion and are of such a pervasive nature that they cannot be met by action at the national level and require a global approach.
The problems are so complex that they can only be solved if the best minds from various disciplines across the world join forces in a cooperative effort. This is where the internationalisation of science and research comes in. This is where policy-makers must play their part. The social challenges I mentioned by way of example, require the greatest possible international coherence in the definition of political objectives and an adequate framework that takes account of the complex and international nature of these challenges.
In order to respond adequately to these challenges, minimize the associated risks and seize the opportunities which globalisation offers for Europe, we must do our best to develop the problem-solving capabilities of the European science and research community by “internationalising” the European Research Area.
In other words, we must move away from parallel national cooperation efforts (including, for example, the numerous bilateral cooperation agreements concluded by individual Member States with other countries and relevant agreements of the European Commission) and move towards greater joint efforts by all in areas where synergy can be expected and critical masses can be generated by means of coordinated European action.
Europe has a longstanding tradition in international S&T cooperation. European research organisations are actively opening new areas of cooperation and developing new approaches of collaboration with third countries. The CREST Working Group on “S&T Internationalisation” has outlined a broad spectrum of activities already undertaken by Member States and the Commission to strengthening S&T cooperation with third countries. The internationalisation of S&T in the coming years will significantly influence the shaping of the European Research Area.
To realize the vision of a European Research Area (ERA) open to the world, the Council invited “Member States and the Commission to form a European Partnership in the field of international scientific and technological cooperation with a view to implementing a European strategy” in December 2008.
The Leitmotiv [guiding motive] of this new European Partnership is that the European Community and the Member States share objectives, formulate and implement common European research agendas and positions vis-à-vis third countries and in international fora.
When launching this new partnership the Council also established an institutional setting, the “Strategic Forum for International Cooperation” – SFIC – to move this process forward and pave the way for a more coherent and consistent appearance of the MS and the Community on the international science scene.
The Strategy Forum on International Cooperation
The constituting meeting of SFIC took place in February, this year. As a first measure, we agreed on a common work programme until end 2010.
The Forum identified three main areas that will structure our work in the coming years:
1. Firstly, establishing efficient working structures to organise the internal information exchange and collect knowledge and data on S&T activities of third countries. Despite the large amount of information available on international research cooperation, we still lack structured information on who does what with whom and why? We still cannot tell in which areas we have similar activities, and where, in terms of topics, areas and instruments, a common approach would increase the efficiency and impact of our activities. We do not know how research and funding organisations have already implemented their measures, what results they have achieved, which instruments are appropriate and what approaches have been proven valuable in the cooperation with developing, emerging or industrialised countries.
Additionally, we want to establish dialogue patterns with other international fora such as G8 and the OECD and with multinational institutions such as ASEAN and other relevant bodies. Europe must contribute actively to the international debate on global challenges by giving its research policy clear emphasis. Here, SFIC can provide guidance or give input into the on-going discussions e.g. in the OECD addressing Global Challenges and developing new approaches and governance mechanisms for transnational S&T cooperation.
2. Secondly, SFIC must define a set of common priorities by concentrating on common challenges and other common research priorities identified, such as energy, health or climate change. This process of agreeing upon objectives, regions and activities that are of common interest and where a joint approach is appropriate will be of a longer term and continuing nature. Our aim is to develop a common understanding of our international research priorities – to be able to speak with one voice in international settings and develop a coherent approach of our activities.
SFIC will provide guidance on the identification of pilot initiatives which allow a large number of its members to participate in order create real added value through coordinated action.
3. Thirdly, SFIC will seek to foster the international dimension of the European Research Area.
The European Research Area must become more outward looking and internationally attractive. Member States, the Community, and the key research and funding organisations must further mainstream the international dimension of their work. They must also support and facilitate research cooperation with third countries more strongly. Fostering the international dimension of the ERA is a multi-level task. International or global S&T cooperation has implications for several of the current ERA initiatives. For example the High Level Group on Joint Programming (GPC) has already started to identify research priorities or the Group on Knowledge Transfer has already started to develop guidelines and policy recommendations on the management of Intellectual Property in international R&D cooperation. One of the central challenges is the alignment of bottom-up approaches with top down policies of MS and the Community. SFIC is not and should not be working in a vacuum. Therefore an important building block in this process is the active involvement of the S&T stakeholders, including industry in order to identify opportunities for and also obstacles to the development of S&T cooperation activities between the European Union and the rest of the world.
A further analysis of relevant strategic documents, like review of the different instruments of the Framework Programme and of national research funding programmes and their potential for fostering strategic cooperation with our main partner countries will be very important.
What next?
As first concrete steps, two Task Forces have been set up by SFIC: (i) to develop recommendations on what information should be shared and how this should be facilitated; and, (ii) to analyse the cooperation patterns of MS and the Commission with on a specific country (India) and a specific topic (energy).
The first results of the analysis of S&T cooperation with India show that nearly all Member States have the same priority fields for cooperation (e.g. biotechnology, ICT, environmental research), that they use similar instruments (e.g. workshops/ seminars, traditional calls for proposal and also joint calls), and they have created joint institutes and joint centres. A next step proposed by the Task Force is to launch a pilot activity with India and to identify the most appropriate instruments for coordinated activities and for developing a common approach.
In the case of Energy, there are already good examples that research organisations, funding agencies or research institutes work together, pool resources and develop joint schemes. The newly established “European Energy Research Alliance” (EERA) is an excellent example. SFIC will work on developing a common approach within the frame of the SET-Plan.
The following questions will guide the next steps of our work:
– In which areas and regions are Member States and Commission mainly active?
– What is the added-value of common approaches?
– What are the most appropriate topics, regions and instruments for joint initiatives?
– How can we best identify appropriate priorities and harness research cooperation for the mutual enhancement of European and international partners?
– How can we better involve our research organisations, agencies and key research institutes in this partnership?
and finally:
– How can we best communicate our research interests, concerns and cooperation offers in international fora?
With the establishment of this Forum we are entering a new territory of a somewhat historical dimension. The Council requested Member States and the Commission, to contribute to the shaping of the further internationalisation of European research.
A stronger coherence in internationalisation policy – this is what we will work on, through discussions, reflections and information exchange. What we should achieve are common approaches and joint positions and their articulation in relevant meetings, committees and multinational fora.
However, a stronger coherence of our internationalisation approaches is not a task for its own sake, but should lead to policy formulation and shaping. Within the next years we should establish SFIC as the Strategy Forum on international S&T cooperation, the voice of the Member States and the Commission, to be heard when it comes to tackle questions of world-wide research cooperation.