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Policy Update - January 30, 2010
By Renzo Rubele
Lisbon Treaty adopted. The major political event for the European Union in the second part of 2009 has been the formal ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, after the “Yes” win in the Irish referendum and the finalisation of its adoption in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
The consolidated versions of the Treaties amended by the Treaty of Lisbon are available, since some time, at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/showPage.aspx?id=1296&lang=en
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The setting up of the new Commission. The formation of the new Commission had already been delayed in June-July due to the uncertainty of the institutional framework. However the re-appointment of President Barroso had been proposed by the European Council in June, and it has been approved by the European Parliament on September 16. The process of appointment was accompanied by the presentation of Political Guidelines before political groups by the President-designate
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/president/pdf/press_20090903_EN.pdf
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From the Lisbon Strategy to the EU 2020 Strategy. In late Novemberthe Commission has come up with a document sketching the basic elements of the new “EU economic strategy” that will succeed the Lisbon strategy for the decade 2010-2020. This is still a work in progress, since the document served to open a public consultation. The official web page for this policy is at
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ERA policy in the Council of Ministers from the Swedish to the Spanish Presidency. During the second part of the Swedish Presidency of the EU, a Competitiveness Council took place on December 3-4 - http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/intm/111732.pdf
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The Commission, the stakeholders and the ERA 2009 Conference. During the second part of the Swedish Presidency a number of initiatives took place at the Commission and stakeholders’ level, and were centred around a major polititical event, namely the ERA 2009 Conference
http://ec.europa.eu/research/conferences/2009/era2009/index_en.htm
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ERC Review. As it is known, an independent panel of experts chaired by the Former President of Latvia and Vice-president of the Reflection Group on the long-term future of the European Union Vaira Vike-Freiberga had been appointed to conduct the first external evaluation of the European Research Council. It presented its report on July 23 -http://erc.europa.eu/PDF/final_report_230709.pdf
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Doctoral training and researchers’ careers. The specific policy area of career development remains of high relevance across the continent. An ESF Member Forum on research careers took place during the last two years - http://www.esf.org/activities/mo-fora/research-careers.html
It is also important that the ESOF Career Programme has been recognized as an existing platform for discussion and gathering of stakeholders.
The European University Association presented the DOC-CAREERS Report “Collaborative Doctoral Education: University-Industry Partnerships for Enhancing Knowledge Exchange”
Another stream of activities is also the one organised by the EUA Council of Doctoral Education: http://www.eua.be/events/eua-council-for-doctoral-education/ which is continuing its own programme of events and institutional cooperation.
LERU, the League of European research-intensive Universities, is likewise engaged in reflecting around the themes of research careers and doctoral training. The first of a set of three position papers in this area, “Harvesting talent - Strengthening research careers in Europe”, has been published at the end of January - http://www.leru.org/?bmlkPTQz and the other two will follow in March.
In the meanwhile Eurodoc, the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers, organised a Workshop in Bonn on November 27-28 as a part of a project on a web-survey for individual doctoral candidates that has been run during several months. Eurodoc is going to produce present the work at their annual conference in Vienna http://eurodoc2010.doktorat.at/ and for a dedicated session of ESOF2010’s Career Programme.
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The European Institute of Innovation and Technology. On September 16, the EIT Governing Board has appointed Gérard de Nazelle as first EIT Director
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1337&form
at=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
He will lead the EIT headquarters in Budapest, and will play a key role in guiding the EIT and its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) towards full operationality.
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Bologna Ministerial Anniversary Conference in Budapest and Vienna. Following the already established decisions taken in the context of the Bologna Process, there will be an Anniversary Conference marking the official birth of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)
http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/2010_conference/
To download the complete policy update:
Policy Update January 30 2010 - PDF (207.38 Kb)
To read the contribution to the consultation on the new EU2020 strategy:
http://www.euroscience.org/euroscience-statements,34194,en.html
