A critique of the European commission’s proposal for the 7th research framework programme

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has recently published a document,1 important insofar as it is intended to underpin central EU investments in research and development from 2007 until 2013, and whose basic purpose is “to strengthen excellence and raise the average level of research in Europe, … to stimulate, organize and exploit all forms of cooperation in research, from collaboration in joint projects and networks to the coordination of national research programmes, competition at the European level as well as a joint implementation of large technology initiatives and the common development of infrastructures of European dimension and interest”. This statement, as
diffuse as it is ungrammatical, epitomizes the whole tenor of the EU approach to funding scientific and technological research. The objective of this critique is to assess those aspects of the proposal1 (henceforth ‘the Proposal’) impinging on nanotechnology and
ultraprecision engineering.