Est. 1min 21-06-2002 (updated: 05-11-2012 ) Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>> Languages: Français | DeutschPrint Email Facebook X LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram The Commission has expressed its agreement with the call by six Nobel laureates for an increase of EU research funds to stem the brain drain to the United States. In a letter to the European leaders, gathered in Seville for an EU Summit (21-22 June), the Nobel laureates slammed the EU’s science policy, called for reforms and demanded a doubling of research funds to stop the brain drain to the US. The letter to the Seville Summit makes several recommendations: focus on basic research to generate knowledge; invest in young scientists; support international centres of excellence, including in the candidate countries; create a European Science Council, modelled on the more transparent US system with open academic peer-review. Read more with Euractiv Informal minister meeting supports EU soil policyOn 24-26 May, the EU environment ministers met for an informal discussion on European soil policy. Subscribe now to our newsletter EU Elections Decoded Email Address * Politics Newsletters PositionsThe 1992 French physics laureate, Georges Charpak, the 1984 Italian physics laureate, Carlo Rubbia, the 1982 British chemistry laureate, Aaron Klug, and three winners of the medicine prize, Sweden's Bengt Samuelsson (1982), Italy's Rita Levi-Montalcini (1986) and Belgian Christian de Duve (1974), warned that the EU spending plans "are inadequate even to put a brake on the process of relative back-sliding of European scientific capability, let alone if one wants to catch up with and overtake the United States". They underlined that the current EU goal of increasing spending on research and development to 3 per cent of the EU's GDP by 2010 from the current 2 per cent was insufficient. They complained that EU spending on research and development was one-tenth of the amount spent on agriculture, which "conveys a strange view of the potential and the future of the Union". The Commission expressed total agreement with this analysis. It called for an increase of research funds to 3 per cent of the EU's GDP, and for a rapid implementation of the European Research Area. Commissioner Philippe Busquin, responsible for research, agreed with the proposal to set up a European Science Council, stating that it could contribute to these objectives. He said that national agencies for research are currently examining this option. BackgroundOn 3 June 2002, the EU Council adopted two framework research programmes: the 6th Research Framework Programme, contributing to the European Research and Innovation Area (2002-2006); the Euratom Framework Programme for research and education activities to help realise the European Research Area (ERA) (2002-2006). The total budget attributed to the two programmes is 17.5 billion euro, of which some 16 million euro for the general framework programme and some 1.2 million euro for the Euratom programme. The US invests 125 billion euro per year more into science and development than the EU. This gap leads to a continuous brain-drain and investment flow from Europe to the US.
