European Research Area

Towards a European Research Area

The European research area network – E-Rare

Rare diseases represent an important public-health issue, affecting 26-30 million persons across Europe, and a major challenge for research. The fragmentation of resources and knowledge for the 6000-8000 rare diseases and the lack of efficient treatments for many of them necessitate a coordinated European approach to unravel the underlying molecular defects and pathophysiological mechanisms. Th...

Scientific publications: A key factor of the European research area

Academic publishing is at the heart of the European Research area was Mrs Dewandres’ main message and the essence of what she had to say. A staff member of the European Commission for many years, she moved to the science publishing area only recently. She was therefore interested to listen to the conference debates. She claimed that this reflected the attitude of Commissioner Potočnik with resp...

European policy. Is Europe evolving toward an integrated research area?

An integrated European Research Area (ERA) is a critical component for a more competitive and open European R&D system. However, the impact of EU-specific integration policies aimed at overcoming innovation barriers associated with national borders is not well understood. Here we analyze 2.4× 10 patent applications filed with the European Patent Office (EPO) over the 25year period 1986–2010 alo...

Integrating new countries into the European Research Area. Croatian reflections on joining the European Union.

The post-Cold War era is witnessing more European nations joining the European Union (EU). This influx of new members necessitates, inter alia, a re-examination of the policies that guide their integration into the common European Research Area (ERA). The basic premise of these policies is—or should be—axiomatic for Europe’s further development: the continent cannot afford scientific illiteracy...