30th Anniversary

Thousands of metres below the Atlantic Ocean live strange types of coral that no human has ever set eyes on. Or at least that was true until last year, when a group of researchers began investigating the uncharted abyss with a remotely-operated vehicle.

Europe needs to cooperate with increasingly innovative countries such as China and Brazil if it is to become more competitive, according to Professor Manfred Horvat, an adviser to the EU who has been involved in international cooperation since the early 1990s.

The project began with a straightforward goal: to understand the chemical basis of lifestyle-related diabetes. But the results raised the possibility of a solution to a very different medical problem: helping physically disabled people get the benefits of exercise.

Even though women have been well represented in Europe’s laboratories since the start of the Framework Programmes, the number of female professors remains stubbornly low, therefore we need to promote stories of successful women, says Dr Claudie Haignere, a former astronaut and the president of Universcience, a French centre that teaches young people the value of scientific and technological discoveries.

With the formation of the European Research Council (ERC) in 2007, the EU has given a substantial boost to frontier research. Now we just need to allow it time to produce results, says Professor Pierre Papon, a former director-general of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Public funding for research is dangerously low in many countries and collective action needs to be taken, according to Professor José Mariano Gago, a physicist and former Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education.

European policymakers wanted the EU’s latest funding programme, Horizon 2020, to demonstrate how research and innovation make Europe more competitive and – in doing so – more attractive to its inhabitants, according to Teresa Riera Madurell, a former MEP who represented the European Parliament in the negotiations on Horizon 2020.

Europe’s support for industry has evolved from single technology programmes to large-scale partnerships involving whole sectors and hundreds of researchers, and it’s helping Europe’s industry keep a leading position in sectors such as energy and transport. 

Once seen as the Cinderella of EU research programmes in an era dominated by high-tech industries, social sciences and humanities are now essential to extracting value from research, says Professor Luc Soete, Rector Magnificus of Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Member States’ agreement to boost research funding by 30 % shows just how crucial research and innovation are to Europe, according to Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science 2010-2014.