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Opening Remarks Stuart Eizenstat Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs INTRODUCTION Thank you for inviting me here today. I want to congratulate the National Research Council for organizing this conference and bringing together such an impressive assemblage of American and European scientists and researchers, technical experts, and policymakers. We are counting on all of you to help us turn the opportunities created by the new U.S.-EU Science and Technology (S&T) Agreement into realities. You represent the "cutting edge" in your respective fields, and through this conference we hope that ideas are shared and cooperation enhanced to the mutual benefit of both the United States and the European Union. The launching of our new S&T agreement is an occasion of great expectation as well as tremendous personal and professional satisfaction. I have watched and encouraged the emergence of this agreement from three different vantage points, beginning with my service as Ambassador to the KU, then as Under Secretary of Commerce, and now as Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs. In fact, the signing of this agreement is the realization of the commitment I personally made as Ambassador to the EU in 1995. A mandate between myself and Mrs. Edith Cresson, commissioner responsible for research, innovation, education, training, and youth, was obtained to conclude an agree- ment by 1997. We fulfilled that mandate and promise at the U.S.-EU summit in December 1997. S&T AGREEMENT The agreement will serve as a broad framework for cooperation, enabling 14
STUART EIZENSTAT 15 some of our most distinguished scientists and best research institutions to col- laborate on a wider range of scientific endeavors and to initiate new joint pro- grams. In addition, the agreement establishes a common ground for handling the allocation and protection of intellectual property rights resulting from joint re- search. Throughout this process I have been convinced that the United States and the EU had an important stake in expanding our scientific and technological col- laboration. First, it is imperative for our scientific and technical communities to work together in this era of globalization. Second, it is critical for our economic and trade interests to develop agreed intellectual property rules, common databases, and mutually acceptable standards. Third, it sends an important political signal that building stronger transatlantic bridges is in both our interests. The agreement, which is based on the principles of mutual benefit, reciprocal opportunities for cooperation, and equitable and fair treatment, should help re- searchers and institutions on both sides of the Atlantic, including subsidiaries of both European and American companies, work more closely in a wide variety of research areas. While we have enjoyed extensive S&T cooperation with Europe and many EU member states for a long time, this agreement opens new areas previously closed to mutually beneficial cooperative activities and provides pro- tection for intellectual property rights. The agreement encourages cooperation in areas where the United States and the EU are doing some of the most advanced research in the world: environment, agriculture, information and communications technologies, biomedicine, health, and manufacturing processes. NEW TRANSATLANTIC AGENDA This agreement is a solid example of the enhanced cooperation between the United States and the KU. President Clinton has consistently made clear his per- sonal commitment to stronger transatlantic ties, and this commitment was mani- fested in the New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA). Agreed upon with the EU at the December 1995 summit, the NTA has strengthened and enhanced our partner- ship. It broadens our cooperation and has the most complete set of cooperative mechanisms we have ever had: semiannual summit meetings, regular subcabinet- level meetings, and a broad range of working-level contacts. Most importantly, the NTA provides a blueprint for strengthening coopera- tion between the United States and Europe into the twenty-first century. The NTA recognizes that ours is a constantly developing relationship that must adapt to internal and external changes, and changes brought about by science and technol- ogy are a fundamental part of our relationship. The S&T agreement is a key instrument for advancing the NTA goal of ex- panding U.S.-European scientific cooperation across the Atlantic. The agree- ment is further concrete evidence of the U.S. State Department's "firm commit- ment to international S&T" highlighted by my colleague, Under Secretary of
6 OPENING REMARKS State for Political Affairs Tom Pickering, in a recent speech to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As Ambassador Pickering said, we are all working hard "to make science relevant to our foreign policy and to bring the department in close touch with the opportunities presented to us in foreign affairs of a closer relationship to the underworld of science and technology." Acting Assistant Secretary Melinda Kimble and the State Department's Bu- reau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs are devot- ing additional resources to ensure the successful implementation of this agree- ment and are reaching out to technical agencies and the scientific community for new ideas and help. They are also taking full advantage of the Internet and other available vehicles to ensure widespread dissemination of information about the agreement. There is much still to be done. We are eager to hear fresh and imaginative ideas on how we can seize the new opportunities before us. Good luck in your discussions over the next two days. You all have an opportunity to help direct what we fully expect to be an extremely productive relationship. And I urge you to take full advantage of it! At the State Department, we await your suggestions and input. We will work closely with our European Commission partners to en- sure that we live up to the promise of our new agreement. Thank you for inviting me to join you this morning and I look forward to receiving and reviewing your report.
Opening Remarks Hugo Paemen Ambassador, European Commission It is a pleasure to be here today for what I hope will be a stimulating confer- ence on the theme of transatlantic science and technology (S&T) cooperation. Fifty-one years ago, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall set forth a vision of a democratic Europe that would be whole, free, and at peace. His hope was that such a Europe could act as a full and equal partner of the United States. Much of Europe responded, laying the groundwork for the European Union. Since then, our transatlantic partnership has been the leading force for peace, democracy, prosperity, and development for ourselves and the world. The New Transatlantic Agenda signed in Madrid in December 1995 con- firms the commitment of the European Union and the United States to further develop, in the new global economic and geopolitical environment, our common goal of fostering an active and vibrant transatlantic community. This should be done by deepening and broadening the political and economic ties that bind us, as well as the social, cultural, educational, and, last but not least, scientific ties. The conclusion last December of the agreement between the European Community and the United States for a program of cooperation in science and technology clearly fits the overall goals that I mentioned. This conference could not come at a better time. At the same moment that the European Commission is finalizing the Fifth Framework Programme for Eu- ropean Research and Training activities covering the period 1998 to 2002, the United States has launched the 21st Century Research Fund, also a five-year ini- tiative, to enable the various S&T agencies to focus more intensely on the president's goals for science and technology. Let us use this conference to inject 17
8 OPENING REMARKS into both of these major efforts the transatlantic dimension that our S&T agree- ment has called for. Good collaborative links between public agencies and academic and indus- trial researchers are clearly essential if the high quality of our academic research in Europe and the United States is to be matched by our ability to produce high- tech goods, processes, and services that can be winners in the global marketplace. This is why we thought there would be considerable benefit, particularly for those of you who are involved in putting together and implementing research and de- velopment (R&D) and innovation programs, in sharing experiences by bringing together administrators and industrial and academic researchers to exchange ideas on good practice. I do not say "best practice" in this context because what works well in one country may work less well elsewhere. So I hope that you will leave Washington, D.C., in two days with plenty of good practical ideas to consider and a range of new contacts people you may wish to stay in touch with in the fu- ture and which will be sorely needed if the U.S.-EU S&T agreement is to be- come the success we all expect. I would like to share with you a couple of concrete messages that seem to me important not to lose sight of in the course of these two days. The first one is the understanding on the European side of the complementary role of the European Community research programs that provide the necessary European dimension to the member states' national R&D programs. I am sure that Professors Routti and Fasella will develop this key point in much more detail during their presentations. Please keep in mind then that this is a meeting about finding new ways to make the European R&D program, built on the success of the respective national pro- grams, identify joint research opportunities with our American counterparts. This European dimension has many expressions, but perhaps a concrete and easily understood one is the requirement to assemble research consortia in which at least two European organizations are involved while recognizing at the same time that many U.S. federally funded programs involve only one organization. The second thought I would like to share with you concerns the increasing importance of collaborative partnerships between industry, academia, and na- tional labs as a way to speed up the ability of our economies to shorten the prod- uct-to-market time frame and increase competitiveness in global markets. The very first European Framework Programme stressed these partnerships. This was done not only from the conviction that this was the right way to increase the competitiveness of the European industry but also and especially out of necessity. The European Union' s R&D funds represent a very small percentage of the funds that member states allocate to R&D. Forging partnerships has been a way to leverage these funds and provide the "biggest bang for the buck." Additionally, the growing complexity of research necessitates a multidisciplinary approach in which all interested actors, industry, academia, and research labs provide input and participate actively. On the U.S. side. we also observe a growing recognition of the importance of
HUGO PAEMEN 19 partnerships to tackle difficult research areas. Examples include the Partnership for the Next-Generation Vehicle and high-performance computing networks. In my opinion, the time is ripe to extend this thinking beyond European Union and U.S. borders and provide a transatlantic dimension to these partnerships. In order for these partnerships to work, they need to be built using a "bottom- up" approach. By this I mean that agreements such as our recently signed S&T one only constitute an institutional framework. Without the active support of the scientific community, they become empty documents. An open and fluid dia- logue among the practitioners will jump-start the process and provide a momen- tum that can never be there by simply putting together administrators in charge of research on both sides. This conference endeavors to provide such a climate for at least four research areas by bringing together investigators and managers ac- tive on both sides. I believe the task ahead of you during these two days is to work within these boundary constraints, as mathematicians like to call them, and to try and identify proposals for future collaborative work. Such work should not only make sense from a scientific and engineering perspective but should also fit the requirements and missions of the various U.S. federal research agencies as well as the Euro- pean Commission. Of course, the task will not be completed in two days, and a similar conference is planned for early 1999 to address additional domains of possible collaboration. This conference is predicated on the premise that no one has a monopoly on wisdom. I hope that by the end of tomorrow all of us will have learned something new of value that we can apply in our own context. If we achieve that, we will have made a genuine contribution to improving the transatlantic scientific dia- logue. I wish you well in your deliberations.
