On behalf of the European Commission, Ms Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, emphasised that research and innovation (R&I) remain crucially important for economic recovery in the European Union. In spite of the current improvement of the economy, many countries still face spending constraints. This prompted the European Commission to make proposals for efficient spending of available funds. Policymakers should firm up their strategies, safeguarding stable funding of selected projects. The quality of R&I programmes should also be improved, including through more competitive allocation of funds. In addition, new partnerships should be formed between research institutes and industry.
EU Member States, including the Netherlands, currently spend an average of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) on R&I. This is well behind countries like Japan, which spends almost 3.5% of GDP. The European Commission stated its intention to help EU Member States increase their R&I spending to 3% of GDP.
The full report in AutomatiseringGids (in Dutch) is available here.
