What the EC Wants From Its 8^th Framework Program. (May 27, 2011)

Colin Macilwain is a contributing correspondent with Nature and in his May 25 column "Can Europe build a framework for success?" he itemises the problems that the European Union's Eighth Framework Programme (FP8) for research and technology will face.

It will run from 2014 to 2020, and is expected to cost around €70 billion (A$93.6 billion).

From an Australian viewpoint what is of interest is the relevance of some of his observations for the Australian scene and what our political masters (servants?) want for the funding they provide in the name of Australian tax payers.

"The first thing it [FP8] wants is innovation" and Mr Macilwain follows this immediately with "the watchword for Máire Geoghegan-Quinn since she took over the research directorate — now the research and innovation directorate — early last year. Like many politicians, she seems hazy on the distinction between research and innovation, and reluctant to acknowledge limits in the potential of state actions to stimulate the latter."

He does, however, agree with Ms Geoghegan-Quinn who argues "that Europe faces a massive competitiveness crisis that can only be averted by a step-change in its innovative capacity," but while she: "is right to demand drastic change, [she is] wrong on the direction it should take. Instead of chasing the impossible goal of an 'Innovation Union' by broadening the Framework's reach, Europe should look to the model of the US National Science Foundation, further develop the ERC [European Research Council], and focus more on backing the best people with the best ideas in engineering, the humanities and all branches of science. (our emphasis)."

And as Thomas Docherty points out in Times Higher Education in referring to Eugene Garfield, an early architect of the "science" of citation measurement, Dr Garfield is clear about the misuse of citation data in the evaluation of research which should depend simply on reading articles and making meaningful intellectual judgements.

Despite such an admonition, the Australian Research Council -- driven by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr -- is spending many million of dollars and taking up thousands of hours of academics' time in implementing a blatantly flawed ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia).

Neither the Prime Minister and the cabinet in residence, nor the leader of the opposition and his shadow cabinet show the slightest concern.