Red tape is coming down across Europe to foster a new and improved single market for businesses involved in research and innovation.
All European Union member states must take steps to join the European research Area (ERA) to fast track projects involved in social projects in sectors like climate change, food and energy security and public health.
ERA will open for business by 2014, according to a statement from the European Commission.
The research strategy is a result of feedback from businesses, governments and organisations involved in research that cited problems with open and transparent recruitment were hindering their efforts by making international mobility more difficult.
The commission is calling on governments to remove barriers to cross-border research careers in Europe, step up the pursuit of joint research agendas, enhance competitive funding for institutions and projects and invest efficiently in world-class facilities.
The goal is to let researchers, research institutions and businesses to better move, compete and co-operate across borders in the hope research bases will become stronger, increase competitiveness and allow them to work together more effectively
European Commissioner for research, innovation and science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said: “We cannot continue with a situation where research funding is not always allocated competitively, where positions are not always filled on merit, where researchers can rarely take their grants or have access to research programmes across borders, and where large parts of Europe are not even in the game.
“Talk to any business leader and they will tell you that the quality of the research base is a major factor in their investment decisions. In today’s economy, no Member State or region can afford to neglect its knowledge base.”
The hope would be that ERA extends the opportunities offered by seed enterprise investment schemes (SEIS), which we covered a few weeks ago here www.iexpats.com/2012/07/expats-can-grab-up-to-78-tax-breaks-on-start-ups-via-seis/. The SEIS are specifically aimed at offering tax breaks to investors in start-up companies involved in research and development.
