the related deepening of democratic political 

 processes, may be hindered by difficulties in 

 obtaining Western, particularly U.S., 

 technologies and R&D management expertise. 



Issues: Should U.S. policy, affecting non-militarily 

 critical technology and know-how, promote 

 the transfer of needed scientific and technical 

 knowledge, training, skills and products to 

 Eastern Europe? 



Assessment: S&T Assistance to Eastern Europe: 

 Opportunity for US-EC Cooperation 



In the aftermath of the 1989 revolutions in Eastern 

 Europe, the organization and structures in those 

 countries for performing and promoting research and 

 technology development have been revealed as 

 completely inadequate and poorly designed for attracting 

 and utilizing the S&T assistance potentially available 

 from the West. Advanced technologies are needed to 

 jump-start worn-out, collapsing economies and provide 

 the underpinnings for democratic liberalization. Applied 

 technology development capabilities are particularly 

 needed, and quickly, to underwrite the transition from 

 crumbling, anachronistic manufacturing and service 

 industries. Assistance is also critical to the reformation 

 of research. Criteria for both research and engineering 

 personnel, formerly based largely upon political and 

 ideological acceptability, must be changed to reflect 

 emphasis on quality and competitiveness. 



Westem financial assistance and technical know-how 

 is available in limited degree from the Group of 24 

 governments, administered through the EC's PHARE 

 program. Much greater resources are potentially 

 available from private sector corporate and banking 

 investment capital. However, the utilization of the 

 former, and the attraction for the latter, depend heavily 



on the success of efforts to restructure East European 

 science and technology from a top-down, command 

 system to one in which ideas, proposals and funding are 

 responsive to quality and need, as determined by the 

 R&D community and the larger marketplace. 



The EC is currently renegotiating trade and 

 cooperation agreements with Hungary, Czechoslovakia, 

 Poland and Bulgaria, all of which will specifically 

 include S&T cooperation. Events generally seem to 

 indicate that, in the not-too-distant future, Poland, 

 Czechoslovakia, and Hungary may be interacting with 

 the EC very closely in economic and S&T matters, much 

 in the way of the current relationship between the EC 

 and the European Free Trade Association countries. The 

 EC Commission has identified the transfer of technology 

 to Eastern Europe as a priority, and much of the time 

 and attention of the two principle research 

 directorates-general are devoted to identifying 

 opportunties and drafting plans for such assistance. S&T 

 Commissioner Filipo Pandolfi has suggested that the 

 U.S. and the EC might jointly develop a policy and 

 programs for effective S&T aid to Eastern Europe, a 

 proposal under consideration by the President's Science 

 Advisor, Dr. Allan Bromley. 



Many U.S. companies are considering investments in 

 these countries, but antiquated, collapsing or absent 

 infrastructures there, along with a relative paucity of 

 R&D management experienced in Westem business 

 practice and market philosophy, have made all but the 

 largest corporations wary of making sizeable or 

 longterm commitments. A major bottleneck is the lack 

 of well-trained S&T personnel, especially in R&D 

 management, who are familiar with the close 

 industry-academic-govemment pattern of cooperation in 

 the West. 



21 



