Office of Science & Technology - 2010 and Beyond: US R&D Policies to Address the Challenges Ahead
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2010 and Beyond: US R&D Policies to Address the Challenges Ahead Print E-mail
bridges vol. 24, December 2009 / Norm Neureiter on S&T in Foreign Policy

By Norman P. Neureiter


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Norman Neureiter
Norman Neureiter
Two months ago, on October 21, 2009, I was invited as the only American speaker to address more than 600 attendees at the 2nd European Research Area (ERA) conference that took place in Brussels. What a splendid concept the ERA is - an effort to do for European science what European Statesmen have been doing since 1949 in bringing 27 nations together to create the EU itself.

For more info about the ERA and this excellent  conference, please look at guest columnist Manfred Horvat's Letter from Brussels in this issue of bridges. A good friend and great expert on European R&D policies, Manfred provides a superb, in-depth account of the start of the ERA in Lisbon ten years ago, its present condition and a look into its future. 

In this final bridges column of mine for 2009, I am sharing some of the views I presented at the ERA meeting about the present direction of US R&D policies, as well as some of the huge challenges facing the US Government at this time. Coupled with some of the thoughts in Manfred's column, I would hope these views might serve the cause of increasing the cooperation between the EU and the US  in science and technology in the years to come.

In January it will be just one year since new people moved into the White House in Washington. President Obama has himself made very clear his attitude toward science in numerous public venues. Here are some quotes from his April speech to the National Academy of Sciences: "Science is more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been before... We are restoring science to its rightful place ... the days of science taking a backseat to ideology are over... [we want ] to ensure that federal policies are based on the best and most unbiased scientific information."

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