How is Europe faring in the research and innovation arena? How come R&D spending at EU level will have doubled between 2000 and 2010? In what ways can Europe's weaknesses be overcome to meet the challenges ahead? Answering these questions and more, A New Deal for an Effective European Research Policy is a guide to the complex process of designing research policy, telling the story of how the 7th Framework Programme, an initiative for funding research and technological development, was put together and explaining why it took the shape it did.
The European Union's Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development is the world's largest programme in support of transnational research, promoting cooperation, coordination, and mobility across borders. The year 2007 sees the launch of the 7th Framework Programme, the biggest and most ambitious so far. Thus the book A New Deal comes out at a particularly crucial moment.
Lead Editor Ugur Muldur said, "The originality of this book lies in its perspective, its transparency and its objectivity. It is the first to present, from a viewpoint inside the European Commission, the nuts and bolts of how EU research policy is actually constructed."
With its detailed analysis of the factors and actors, political constraints and opportunities, societal challenges, and expectations shaping research policy, the book provides a peek into what is sometimes perceived as the black box of EU policy making. It describes some of the key factors that helped to outline the new Framework Programme, and looks at its expected impacts. In the process, it also draws upon past experience of previous Framework Programmes and evidence from evaluations to pose some broader questions in relation to EU public policy and to provide some longer-term perspectives.
The book argues for a "new deal" for research in Europe involving the mobilisation of policy actors across all levels – regional, national and European – and their commitment to develop a more coherent and effective research policy for Europe. This requires an open debate on the issues and an open mind about the outcome of this debate and inquiry, and to bravely face the facts about what needs to be changed.
Ugur Muldur, Fabienne Corvers, Henri Delanghe, Jim Dratwa, Daniela Heimberger, Brian Sloan, Sandrijn Vanslembrouck
A New Deal for an Effective European Research Policy
The Design and Impacts of the 7th Framework Programme
2007. XXVI, 289 p.
Hardcover. EUR 24.95, £19.00, sFr 41.00, $39.95
ISBN 978-1-4020-5550-8