Britain's science minister has held discussions in Dublin with the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, on science policy issues in the run-up to the Irish EU presidency. Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor, reports.
There was much common ground between the two according to the British delegation, led by junior minister in the UK Department of Trade and Industry, Lord Sainsbury.
European competitiveness was a central issue in yesterday's talks, as well as the importance of linkages between universities and industry, Lord Sainsbury told The Irish Times yesterday. He put the British position on such issues as the EU research council and the next round of EU research funding under the Framework Programme.
"In a way all of these issues relate to one another," he said. "The Irish presidency is a good opportunity to do some creative thinking on these issues."
It was a "very good meeting" at which where was a general "policy-based discussion", according to a spokesman for the Tánaiste, Ms Harney. "They had a wide-ranging discussion on how research in Europe can be developed," he said yesterday.
Issues on the agenda included the value of third-level research links with industry as a way for Europe to become more competitive, and the need for universities to be "more proactive" in forging these links, the spokesman said.
"There was a lot of commonality" between the Irish and UK positions on science policy, Lord Sainsbury said yesterday in Dublin, particularly in relation to an EU competitiveness council. The two also discussed state research spending and the EU goal of achieving a 3 per cent of GDP rate of investment, as declared at the Lisbon summit. The Republic currently only invests 1.2 per cent of GDP in research, compared to Britain's 1.8 per cent.
They discussed how the EU target might be achieved given the current difficult economic picture, Lord Sainsbury said. "You can have aspirational targets which don't mean very much or actual targets and plans on how to achieve them," he said.
The also stressed the value of collaborative ventures between EU states. "If you want to stay at the leading edge you have to collaborate."
Britain, he said, "under-funded the science budget quite badly" during the 1980s and 1990s, but the present government had moved to right that situation. Spending during 2003 will exceed £2,000 million, he said, and the target is for an annual spend of £3,000 million by 2006.