Business & Education News - November 17, 2004

U.S. and Europe continue collaboration

In October, the EU and the United States signed a new five-year research agreement that increased their focus on environmental science and technology. An independent impact assessment of the previous agreement, which expired at the end of 2003, found that the number of EU research projects with U.S. collaborators was disappointingly low and recommended improving the scientific community’s awareness of the agreement. Under the new agreement, a committee composed of European Commission and U.S. State Department representatives will have a wide range of duties, including encouraging and coordinating collaborative projects and monitoring progress of cooperation in general. The EU and the United States invest a total of €500 billion per year in research and development projects. The environmental research mentioned in the agreement includes climate studies; biomedicine and health; non-nuclear energy; telematics, which combines telecommunications and computing; and science and technology policy. Management, training, and mobility of scientists are also targeted.