Community-wide voice to represent members on some 

 types of S&T issues with non-EC countries. 



Answers to several still unresolved questions will 

 determine in large part whether, at a what level, an 

 agreement with the EC would be justified by the 

 interests of the U.S. research community: 



1) to what extent does (will) the Commission have 

 the political authority to represent member states 

 on collective policy and resource allocation 

 matters, apart from the Commission's own 

 research programs; 



2) to what extent does (will) the Commission 

 support research programs or activities that would 

 be comparable in kind and quality to those of the 

 U.S.; 



3) to what degree would cooperative activities 

 involve free and open, as opposed to restricted, 

 access by research participants; and 



4) will the Commission have meaningful funds at 

 its disposal to support jointly-undertaken 



or -sponsored research? 



These questions should, and almost certainly will be 

 explored soon via the newly-established Joint US-EC 

 S&T Task Force. 



U.S.-EC Human Resources: Supply, Education 

 and Mobility 



Concern: The centripetal effects of European economic 

 and S&T integration, combined with 

 increasing demands on a declining pool of 

 trained S&T personnel, could result in 

 diminished numbers of EC residents who 

 come to the U.S. for long-term study and 

 work. Concurrently, growing EC ties with 

 EFTA and East European countries in S&T 

 relations could result in greater EC focus on 

 S&T education and training as a form of 

 cooperation with those countries. Absent any 

 stimulus to increase the numbers of American 

 graduate students and younger professional 

 S&T personnel who study and work in 

 Europe, or to augment European study and 

 training in the U.S., there may be a serious 

 decline in the levels of U.S. -European 

 interaction and cross-familiarity in research. 



Issue: Does adequate support exist on the part of the 

 U.S. govemment, academia and industry, for 

 U.S. students and S&T professionals for 

 long-term visits to Westem Europe? Should 

 the U.S. govenunent provide greater 

 flexibility and support for foreigners to visit 

 the U.S. for education and professional work 

 in S&T fields? 



Assessment: Potential Consequences for 



U.S.-European S&T Cooperation of a 

 Declining Level of S&T Personnel 

 Exchanges 



The problem of an inadequate pool of potential 

 science and engineering talent in Europe is at least as 

 severe as in the U.S. The available pool from which 

 science and engineering (S&E) students would be drawn 

 over the next decade is shrinking rapidly in every EC 

 country, with only the UK showing potential for a slight 

 reversal of the trend early in the next century. The 

 problem is particularly acute in West Germany, which 

 currently supplies 35% of the Community's S&E 

 professionals and which is expected to experience a 45% 

 decline in S&E students over the next decade. 

 [Unification will not help the trend, as the demographic 

 decline in eastern Germany is even sharper than in the 

 westem portion.] 



In the United Kingdom, where university-age 

 population decline is not so severe as in other EC 

 countries, nevertheless the numbers of high school 

 graduates, university students taking degrees in S&T 

 fields, and S&T graduates pursuing professional careers 

 are all so low as to cause critical alarm. As one example, 

 the demand for courses in chemical engineering in 

 1988-89 fell 8.7% at traditional universities and 16.1% 

 at polytechnic universities over the previous year; the 

 corresponding figures for electrical engineering showed 

 a drop of 1 1.9% and 7.4% respectively. 



There is a rapidly aging professional science and 

 engineering population throughout the EC, with 

 approximately a quarter of currently active researchers 

 reaching retirement age by 1995. In France, for instance, 

 the median age of professional researchers in 1999 has 

 been projected as forty-seven. A recent official report 

 predicts that for two years alone, 2001-2002, demand for 

 professors and lecturers in the sciences will outstrip the 

 supply by 2,500 positions. Between 2000 and 2015, it is 

 estimated that 70% of French faculty in science and 

 engineering will retire. 



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