Commissioner highlights role of research

Governments must not cut back on research and development budgets if EU economies are to recover from the recession, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said today.

Ms Geoghegan-Quinn said she realised some viewed her support of a 3 per cent investment of EU gross domestic product in research and development as an "albatross" which would be a financial burden on already hard-pressed economies.

"With budgets under pressure, Government might view research and development as an easy target for cut backs. Now is the wrong time to remove that discipline," she said. "Without sufficient investment in research and development from both the public and private sector the potential to develop growth and jobs can't be realised."

There was a need to pool regional, national and EU resources and those of the private sector and move away from the unnecessary duplication of research. However the greatest barrier to this aim was the restrictions put on the movement of researchers, particularly the difficulty of transferring pension and social security rights.

"We are therefore striving to remove obstacles to the mobility of researchers and to realise a unified area for exchanges of knowledge."

Ms Geoghegan-Quinn was speaking at a business innovation conference in Dublin. It was her first public engagement in the city since becoming commissioner.

The conference, titled Dublin - A City That Works, was organised by the Lord Mayor's commission on employment. It  heard that Dublin City Council is to provide access to its internal data to private industry in the city.

The council is also investigating whether the large number of vacant buildings in the city centre could be used to support growing sectors such as green businesses, or creative industries.

"We are taking a pro-active approach to find innovative solutions such as meeting the needs of new business while addressing the growing number of empty properties on the streets," Lord Mayor Cllr Emer Costello said.

The council is also in talks with city centre retailers to develop a new retail strategy to attract shoppers back to the city centre, she said.