Conference Highlights Importance of Research Facilities

Brdo pri Kranju, 6 March

A developed research infrastructure is key for meeting Lisbon objectives as it creates an attractive environment for researchers and high-tech companies, participants of a two-day conference on research infrastructure agreed in Brdo pri Kranju on Thursday.

The participants stressed that the development of such infrastructure must be coordinated, a view also conveyed to the press by Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Mojca Kucler Dolinar at the close of the "Research Infrastructures and their Structuring Dimension within the European Research Area" event.
According to Kucler Dolinar, efforts must be directed towards boosting the development of research with the focus on human resources and research infrastructure. This is highly dependent on member states and partnerships within the EU, she added.
The participants moreover debated ways to finance research infrastructure that would contribute to greater synergies and more efficient use of funds and examined several partnerships between the public and private sectors in investment into research infrastructure.
Another topic on the agenda was the uneven distribution of science and research facilities in the EU. "Cities and regions are the driving connecting force in the creation of a knowledge-based society, but science itself is poorly distributed," said Kucler Dolinar.
The participants echoed this view, pointing out that most existing research infrastructure was, for historical reasons, located in western EU. They agreed that research infrastructure needed to be distributed across the whole of the EU so that the European research area attained its full potential as a driving force of the Lisbon process.
Kucler Dolinar also said that "only through active regional partnership can the EU become the most competitive economy in the world", while Development Minister Ziga Turk said that research structure was needed to prevent brain drain to the US.
The conference was also attended by Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik.
Potocnik said he believed Europe had made progress in research infrastructure and human resources in the past few years as it drafted a short list of priorities. "Now is the key moment for countries to draft coordinated national programmes and decide on domestic priorities that they would like to cooperate on internationally".

Conference Highlights Importance of Research Facilities

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