EUROPEAN COMMISSION
[CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY]
José Manuel Durão Barroso
President of the European Commission
President Barroso's speech at the Euroscience Open
Forum
Science building bridges
Euroscience Open Forum
Copenhagen, 22 June 2014
Your Majesty,
Dear Minister [Sofie Carsten-Nielsen, Minister of Higher Education and Science]
Dear Chair of ESOF [ESOF2014 Champion Professor Klaus Bock]
Dear President [Euroscience President, Professor Lauritz Holm-Nielsen]
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to be here with you today for the 2014 Euroscience Open
Forum. I would like to thank you for inviting me to take part in this very important
event.
In a country with over 400 islands, with three bridges over six kilometres long, what
more appropriate theme could have been given to this Forum than "Science building
bridges".
A country world-known for its scientific leadership; for its expertise across a range of
fields, from clean technology to biotechnology, from pharmaceuticals to
telecommunications.
A country proud and confident about its knowledge-based society, renowned for its
openness, and desire to cooperate internationally; a country whose bridge, the Oresund
Bridge, links, not just two countries, i.e. Sweden and Denmark, but Europe's regions,
from Scandinavia to Western and Central Europe.
Your Majesty,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
[Europe 2020/Horizon 2020]
As we start to move out of the worst financial and economic crisis since the 1930s, now
is the time to focus on building a strong, sustainable future.
On building a bridge between our past scientific traditions and a world where we share
increasingly important global challenges and where we need innovative solutions.
SPEECH/14/487
That is precisely why, back in 2010, we put in place our new Europe 2020 strategy,
designed to build a balanced, knowledge-based economy, with education, science,
research and innovation at its very heart.
That is also why we have managed to make the seven year budget for our European
research programme, Horizon 2020, 30% larger than its predecessor, despite the slight
decrease in the European budget as a whole.
It was not easy but we got it. We
managed to convince Member States that at least the science and innovation budget
should be increased. At 80 billion Euros over seven years, Horizon 2020 is one of if not
the largest research and innovation programme in the world, designed to complement
other sources of national and private financing.
We have therefore managed to match ambition with resources, giving you the
researchers the stability and long term commitment that you need.
This goes to show, as we discuss the challenges facing us in the years ahead, that
science does indeed matter for the future of Europe.
Not just to a large audience such as yours, but to everyone in our societies. Because I
believe that our social and economic progress and many of the solutions to today's
problems will come from science. And I would even say that "The future of Europe is
science".
[Successes]
As our recent Communication on research and innovation as sources for growth has
shown, we have a lot to be confident about.
Europe undoubtedly remains a world leader in science and has the capacity to innovate.
Our European Research Area remains the largest knowledge-production house in the
world: we have twice the number of science and technology graduates in Europe than in
the United States; and with 7% of the world's population, we still produce roughly a
third not only of the GDP, but also of patents and high impact scientific publications.
And despite the financial and economic crisis we have managed to halve the innovation
gap that we still have with the United States and Japan.
[More to do]
But we cannot afford to stand still, in a world where scientific and technological progress
is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, and where South Korea is moving further
ahead, with China quickly catching us up.
So we must adapt to the new challenges and new ways of working in the 21 st Century.
The role of digital technologies and the wealth of information and data that is being
produced pose many questions about how science and research will be performed in the
future.
I know that Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn, whom I would like to
congratulate, for her commitment and passion on these issues during her term as
Commissioner, will discuss this particular matter with you on Tuesday morning.
We must also adapt our culture so that women are better represented in research and
science, another matter close to my heart: indeed, whilst women hold 45% of all PhDs in
Europe, they only represent 30% of career researchers.
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Last but not least, we must bring in our younger generation into science and innovation,
reinforcing and tailoring our educational systems so that they more fully embrace
creativity and risk.
This is key to Europe's future.
Your Majesty,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to highlight briefly five bridges that we have been building and that we must
collectively continue to build.
First, we are building bridges between all the scientific disciplines. Our Innovation Union
seeks to mainstream science and innovation across all sectors, and cross-fertilise your
ideas to develop new technologies, products and services for the complex multidisciplinary challenges in our societies.
This is why Horizon 2020 champions a
challenge-based approach and why the European Institute of Innovation and
Technology, recently launched its Call for Proposals for the Knowledge and Innovation
Communities.
Secondly, we are building bridges between researchers and the general public. Horizon
2020 is a large programme, with a broad set of objectives from excellence in science with the European Research Council now chaired by Professor Bourguignon - to industrial
leadership and a number of key societal challenges, allowing us to focus on the big
priorities relevant to every European citizen. I am very proud of the ERC. But in order to
ensure that the progress you make, for example on new vaccinations or nanotechnology, is properly explained and embraced rather than feared, across society, we
need a considerable communication effort from scientists themselves as well as from
policy makers. There is an important role for the media here.
Thirdly, we are building bridges between the laboratory and the marketplace. After 30
years of negotiation, we finally agreed a European-wide patent.
Once fully
implemented, this will reduce the cost by up to 80% for small and medium sized
businesses and individual researchers to register their creative ideas. This should
encourage more private investment, because at 1.30% of GDP, we still lag behind the
United States, Japan or South Korea, where private investment, venture capital and the
culture of risk are more widely shared.
Fourthly, we are building bridges between Member States. With the European Research
Area, we are encouraging reforms for a greater mobility of researchers and for panEuropean research infrastructures.
But our countries must make an equal effort in research if we are to bridge the gap in
investment across Europe, and if research opportunities are available across Europe.
Collectively, we are missing our Europe 2020 target of 3% GDP in research and
development, averaging just under 2%, with more regional disparity and ten Member
States still averaging under 1%. We are doing fiscal consolidation but we need smart
fiscal consolidation.
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Finally, we are building bridges internationally, trying to reach out to all countries in the
world. Only two weeks ago, I signed an agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, granting Israel – a leading nation in science and innovation - access to our
Horizon 2020 programme, as part of our science diplomacy. The principle behind this
agreement, as well as with agreements we have with twenty other partners, is simple: it
is that we can tackle together more smartly and efficiently the global challenges we face.
And this is also why I am pleased to see so many international participants at today's
Forum.
[Conclusion]
Your Majesty,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We cannot afford to rest.
And although Niels Bohr once said that prediction is very difficult, especially if it is about
the future, I have nevertheless asked the Science and Technology Advisory Council and
Professor Anne Glover, my Chief Scientific Adviser, to produce a report on foresight. Let
me take this opportunity to thank them for their dedication to this work, which will be
unveiled in the conference "The future of Europe is science", to be held in Lisbon on 6th
and 7th of October.
I look forward to a successful Euroscience Forum and to an ever increasing role of
Europe in science and innovation, with a view to the next Forum in 2016, in Manchester.
Thank you.
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