Europarlementariërs: trek onderzoekers aan en stop de brain drain (en)

The EU has to re-attract competent researchers and prevent a further outflow from the EU, says the European Parliament in its own-initiative report on the European Research Area adopted with 602 votes in favour, 18 against and 6 abstentions. MEPs call on Member States to abolish any barriers that hinder researchers from entering the EU. They also propose a "research voucher" and postdoctoral fellowships which build on the Erasmus programme to increase researchers' mobility within the EU.

The EU is far behind its objective to increase its average funding of research and development to 3% of the GDP by 2010, says the own-initiative report by Umberto GUIDONI (EUL/NGL, IT).

Research and Development Figures

The House regrets that figures for expenditure on research and development show that the EU average is only 1.84% of GDP against 2.68% in the USA and 3.18 % in Japan; and that expenditure varies from 0.39% in Romania and 0.4% in Cyprus to 3.86% in Sweden. The report underlines the importance of increasing the average spending as well as raising expenditure in some Member States and highlights the importance of better focussing the diverse research and development efforts throughout the Union, especially in order to facilitate the transition towards the digital economy. The committee says that this is fundamental for the creation of appropriate conditions for the achievement of the knowledge-based economy called for in the Lisbon Strategy.

Easier access to the EU for researchers

The European Parliament stresses that a further outflow of competent European researchers must be prevented. MEPs in the committee urge Member States to abolish any barriers that hinder access to the EU for researchers such as insufficient recognition or portability of acquired social entitlements, tax disadvantages, and difficulties in relocating families.

MEPs also consider it important to align the EU's scientific co-operation policies with EU foreign policy and development aid programmes. MEPs call on the Commission to initiate actions to increase the participation of scientists from developing countries in international collaborative science and R&D projects and to promote access to existing intellectual property globally. The committee supports the Commission's proposal to create a "blue card system" which would be of "great value for human resources in science and technology".

" Research voucher" and "Erasmus programme" for postdoctoral studies shall promote researchers' mobility

MEPs propose a "research voucher" which hosting institutions and universities issue to researchers from other Member States thus providing additional financial resources to the actual research that attracts foreign researchers. This system would be an incentive for Member States and research institutions to compete for the most talented scientists, say MEPs.

As another means of supporting researchers' mobility the Commission and the Member States should consider launching European postdoctoral fellowships and training schemes which build on the successful Erasmus programme.

Fair sharing of knowledge

The House supports the Commission's approach of "open innovation" for sharing knowledge between public and private sectors. However, MEPs call for "a balanced and fair system" between open access to scientific results and use of such results by the private sector. They stress that the industry should officially recognise the rule of "a fair and equitable financial reward" for the use of public knowledge.

The Internet opens up "opportunities for experimentation with new models" (such as Open Access), says the report. Yet, MEPs stress that authors' freedom of choice and intellectual property rights need to be respected and quality peer review must be ensured. Through pilot projects impact and viability of alternative models such as Open Access should be evaluated.

Finally, MEPs consider it "vital" to establish a Community Patent and a "high-quality, cost-effective, innovation-friendly judicial system for European patents".