First joint meeting EU Industry and Research Ministers to focus on innovation

For the first time the EU Ministers in charge of
Industry and those in charge of Research will have a joint
meeting. The challenge is to reverse the growing gap between
Europe and the US in R&D investment of the enterprise
sector.

The EU Industry and Research ministers will during their
meeting focus on innovation. The output of the meeting will
be used as input to the European Council of Barcelona in
the field of research and innovation. The topics of the
joint debates are:

• Public support mechanisms for R&D and
  innovation;
• Fostering of mobility of researchers and
  technology;
• The recent strategy paper on biotechnology;
• Promoting innovation and R&D to foster the
  competitiveness of European industry;
• Technology transfer and mobilisation of financial
  resources;

On 2 February the Research Ministers will further discuss
the possibilities of opening up national research
programmes. This will be financially supported by the
Commission as one of the new elements of the sixth Research
Framework Programme due to start at the beginning of 2003.
The Industry ministers will on 2 February address
innovation as a key factor for European industrial
competitiveness.

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