RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT : PRIORITY TO INFRASTRUCTURES AND RESEARCHERS' MOBILITY.

The economic recovery plan and the recent French Presidency conclusions underline that to maintain Europe's growth and employment prospects in the medium and longer-term, the current financial crisis should not lead to a delay or cut in research investment. The plan, the Czech Presidency and the Vision 2020' all aim to lay the ground for a more competitive Europe through more investment in research in the coming months.Vlastimil Ruzicka, the Czech deputy minister for education, youth and sports, talked about the Presidency's three priorities at a recent press conference in Versailles.

INFRASTRUCTURES

The first will follow on from the French Presidency's discussions on the European Commission's proposed legal framework for pan-European research infrastructures. These may be single-sited' or distributed' with an organised network of resources. The draft regulation aims to provide a uniform procedure for the shared use of research facilities by a number of member states and associated countries. Contentious issues have included whether these should be exempt from VAT and whether membership should involve at least two or three member states.The Czechs will be advocating greater use of structural funds to finance research infrastructures and other aspects of the ERA. They want to ensure EU infrastructures are distributed evenly across Europe and not confined to a few countries. On 24-25 March, a conference on strengthening ERA through research infrastructures is foreseen in Prague.The European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) aims to facilitate multilateral initiatives for the development and better use of these networks and has a road map of 44 projects. Around 16 European countries have either published their own maps or are preparing one. The Czech...