Defending basic research in Europe
« Research without a budget means a Europe without a future »
On Wednesday 25th August 2010, 871 of you signed the Staff Council petition which carried this message. This is a resounding success for a month of August. Staff members and pensioners, you showed by your presence your mass support for our appeal to defend research budgets in Europe. The participation and messages of support from our colleagues in other European scientific organizations is confirmation that budget cuts in research are common practice far beyond the confines of CERN. If research had benefited from the promises made by the European Union in 2000 to increase investment in research and development (R&D) from 1.8% to 3% of GDP by 2010, the scientific community would more readily accept the current cuts. However, we are now in 2010 and the rate of 1.8% has remained the same. So, we have been hit twice: not only have we not had the good weather we were promised, we now find ourselves in the middle of a storm. This example alone shows the woeful lack of consideration for the men and women in research.
However, any country would agree that R&D, and its ability to open the way for future innovation, has an important place in a policy of economic recovery. So, why clip the wings of research in the middle of an economic crisis ? European countries are obviously having trouble turning words into action.
The speeches, photos and article from our gathering are available at the following address: http://association.cern.ch.
On Wednesday 25th August 2010, 871 of you signed the Staff Council petition which carried this message. This is a resounding success for a month of August. Staff members and pensioners, you showed by your presence your mass support for our appeal to defend research budgets in Europe. The participation and messages of support from our colleagues in other European scientific organizations is confirmation that budget cuts in research are common practice far beyond the confines of CERN. If research had benefited from the promises made by the European Union in 2000 to increase investment in research and development (R&D) from 1.8% to 3% of GDP by 2010, the scientific community would more readily accept the current cuts. However, we are now in 2010 and the rate of 1.8% has remained the same. So, we have been hit twice: not only have we not had the good weather we were promised, we now find ourselves in the middle of a storm. This example alone shows the woeful lack of consideration for the men and women in research.
However, any country would agree that R&D, and its ability to open the way for future innovation, has an important place in a policy of economic recovery. So, why clip the wings of research in the middle of an economic crisis ? European countries are obviously having trouble turning words into action.
The speeches, photos and article from our gathering are available at the following address: http://association.cern.ch.
