THE European Commission should fund the best and the brightest in the field of scientific research, according to Prof Jan Borgman, chairman of the European Science and Technology Assembly (ESTA).
Prof Borgman and 12 other members of the ESTA board were in Dublin yesterday to discuss future project proposals for the Commission. The Commission will finalise its 13 billion ecu science and technology budget next April.
"You can only exploit the excellence of people if you give them the opportunity to make proposals themselves."
Prof Borgman said the Commission was expected to produce an orientation paper this month, and a working paper at the end of the year detailing the type of proposals likely to receive funding.
The science and technology budget under the framework programme only represented 4 per cent of the Commission's funds, compared to the 27 per cent spent on agriculture, Prof Borgman said. "Maybe that is something we will be asking the Irish Government to increase during the presidency."
The board, made up of delegates from 10 countries, includes Prof Dervilla Donnelly, chairwoman of the Custom House Docks Development Authority and former chair of the European Science Research Council. She is also a vice president of the European Science Foundation.
Prof Borgman said he believed the interests of scientists and politicians did not always coincide. "Scientists believe that there are goals which you have to put downs for yourselves 10 years from now." Politicians tended to be driven by the more immediate needs of elections.
He said the ESTA was basing its discussions yesterday and today on "informed speculation" on what would appear in the Commission's orientation paper.
