Building The European Research Area

Within fields supported by the European Union, the social science landscape has been transformed in two ways. First, broad and deep networks have been created; researchers previously focused on national issues now see themselves primarily as part of a European research environment, traveling, collaborating, and interacting across borders in unprece

This book is the first comparative volume on European research and higher education policies.

This collection analyses and comments on the development of the ERA, which seeks to co-ordinate national research and advance European wide projects. The contributors include leading scholars of European integration and technology policy and high-level administrators. They discuss the potential impacts, benefits and limits to research and innovation policy within Europe both in the short and long term. Moreover, the debate about ERA is placed firmly in the context of the overall changes at the European level.

Since the European Research Area was launched at the beginning of the century, significant efforts have been made to realise the vision of a coherent space for science and research in Europe. But how does one define such a space and measure its development? This timely book analyses the dynamics of change in the policy and governance of science and research within Europe over the past decade. It widens the scope of traditional policy analysis by focusing attention on the interaction between policy rationales, new governance mechanisms, and the organisational dynamics of the scientific field. The contributors build a novel analytical framework to understand the European research space as one shifting from a fragmented space of “Science in Europe” to one that is labeled “European Science”. The chapters explore the dynamics of this shift through the lenses of political science, organisation theory, science policy and related analytical traditions. Towards European Science is an interdisciplinary book which will attract a wide set of scholars and professionals interested in science policy, governance and scientific practice. It will also be of use to university leaders and managers, as well as policy-makers and practitioners working on issues of internationalisation and the Europeanisation of science.

In a rapidly changing world, in which research is proving to be an increasingly vital element, Europe possesses considerable advantages. But to exploit these to the full, it needs to overcome the fragmentation of its Member States' science and technology policies. The European Research Area (ERA) is intented to co-ordinate these national research policies in the direction of shared objectives, expertise and resources. Once ERA has been achieved, the concept of European research will be as familiar as those of the single market or the single currency are today.

This title is about the most important concept underpinning current European Union research policy. It focuses on the notion of the European Research Area, a European 'internal market' for research, whose achievement will become the main objective of EU research policy once the Lisbon Treaty enters into force.

This book argues that a New Deal for research in Europe is needed. This New Deal would involve the mobilisation of policy actors across all levels-–regional, national and European-–and their commitment to develop a more effective research system based on actions where they have the greatest impact. The book presents, from a viewpoint inside the European Commission, the nuts and bolts of how EU research policy is actually designed. It also provides a comprehensive analysis, on the basis of factual evidence, not only of the positive impacts of European research, but of the various criticisms that have been made of the Framework Programme.