EU Member States will deliver nearly four million jobs and increase their collective annual gross domestic product by €700 billion by 2025, the director general of the Commission's Directorate General for Research and Innovation Robert-Jan Smits said today. He was speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting taking place in Washington DC.
These targets formed part of a growth strategy for Europe based on being "smart, sustainable and inclusive" he told media at a morning briefing. Science, technology and innovation would be at the centre of this effort.
The first steps towards this goal were taken earlier this month when EU leaders "agreed on a package of actions that will boost Europe's research and innovation capacity." Irish research commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn had warned that Europe faced an "innovation emergency", Mr Smits said, then quoting her as saying: "Innovation is as essential to a successful modern economy as water is to life."
Ireland would be a full participant in the research effort and would make a valuable contribution. "Ireland has an enormous amount of top researchers and research centres," he told The Irish Times. He also praised Ireland's research funding mechanisms, saying: "Science Foundation Ireland is doing fantastic work."
Ireland had shown how a country could develop its capacity to do good science. "Your country has been for me an example of how the wise use of structural funds has been able to help develop a knowledge economy," Mr Smits stated. "It allowed the development of roads and airports but also research infrastructure."
He acknowledged the economic difficulties now facing Ireland but said that would not prevent Ireland from contributing. "It is a sad story how it has collapsed but you are still maintaining good science."
The current EU science budget, Framework Progamme 7 (2007-14), is worth a total of €53 billion and is the largest public research budget in the world, Mr Smits said. It currently involves more than 21,000 universities and research centres across Europe including Ireland. Research awards given this year will deliver up to 165,000 research posts in this calendar year alone he said. ENDS