Report of the Federal Government on research 1993 : abridged version / Federal Ministry for Research and Technology.

  • Germany. Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie
Date:
1993
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Federal Government on research 1993 : abridged version / Federal Ministry for Research and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    128/154 (page 124)
    Introduction Today, national research and technology policy does not make any sense unless it is integrated into trans- frontier cooperation. Due to the enormous sums re- quired and the investment risks involved, fewer and fewer large-scale research projects and costly technol- ogy programmes, e.g. space flight, high-energy phy- sics and microelectronics, can be realised without such cooperation. Within the European Community this cooperation has gained particular significance in the light of the Single European Act and the Treaty on Eu- ropean Union (Maastricht Treaty). There are many different forms of cooperation. They include bilateral agreements and projects, bilateral or multilateral coordination of national research activi- ties, cooperation in individual projects or in specific re- search areas under the umbrella of European or global research and technology policies within the European Community. The Federal Government and the research institutions and project managing agencies it finances have con- cluded agreements or accords on scientific and tech- nical cooperation with partners in more than 50 coun- tries. German agencies are members of numerous inter- national research organisations and institutions. The most important objectives of cooperation are (1) to pool and coordinate national research, technol- ogy and financial resources in order to use them specifically — and on a cost-sharing basis — for indi- vidual large-scale projects or in particular research areas; (2) to exchange and compare scientific and technologi- cal findings, especially with the major industrial- ised countries; (3) to strengthen Europe’s technological competitive- ness at the international level — also in the context of enhancing Germany’s position as an industry lo- cation; (4) to support the political and economic restructuring process in the countries of Central and Eastern Eu- rope including the independent states of the for- mer Soviet Union, especially to introduce them to European and worldwide cooperation in research; (5) to increase the economic and technical potential of the countries of the Third World, especially of the newly industrialising countries, through the trans- fer of technology. The Federal Government hopes that — in addition to the obvious benefit for science and technology — this cooperation will provide important thrusts for — the further economic and politica] integration of Eu- rope; 124 — the stabilisation of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe including the independent states of the former Soviet Union under democratic and mar- ket economy systems; — transatlantic cooperation; — intensified cooperation with the technology coun- tries of the East Asian region; — the worldwide exchange of ideas, knowledge and experience; — curbing protectionist tendencies in the global econ- omy; — solving the existential problems of the Third World; — increasing responsibility for the conservation of resources and the ecological balance of the Earth; and — developing internationally uniting objectives in a joint effort to provide for the future of the world. The description of German involvement in interna- tional research cooperation in this part of the Report of the Federal Government on Research is structured as follows: — European cooperation * cooperation in Western Europe ® cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe including the independent states of the former Soviet Union — Worldwide cooperation under the umbrella of inter- national organisations and research institutions — Bilateral cooperation outside Europe. Cooperation in research and technology in Western Europe is based on a wide range of instruments, con- sisting of different forms of organisation and re- sources, whose core consists of the research and tech- nology programmes of the European Community. Col- laboration is extended beyond Community borders by cooperation schemes like COST (Cooperation with third countries in applied research), JET and ITER (European and worldwide cooperation in fu- sion research), EC participation in EUREKA and ESA projects as well as — more recently — the cooperation of the EC and EFTA, based on the Treaty on the Euro- pean Economic Area (EEA). This is complemented, in particular in the technological area, by the coopera- tion of industrial companies and research institutions within the EUREKA framework and the coopera- tion of European states in space research and technol- ogy within ESA as well as in numerous specific multi- lateral and bilateral research projects.