development for economic competitiveness is squeezing 

 funding for basic research. This situation has created an 

 expanding opportunity for the EC Commission to move 

 into the area of basic research coordination and support, 

 in conjunction especially with new research fields which 

 the chief member states are insufficiently prepared to 

 underwrite. 



Constraints on Public Funding Choices 



• The ability to increase or reallocate discretionary 

 funding to support promising and emerging science 

 and technology is constrained in all the major 

 member states, providing increased leverage to EC 

 Commission programs and funds. 



Commission funds support only the actual costs of 

 specific R&D. Not only can they be targeted selectively, 

 but they can be reprogrammed as often as the 

 FRAMEWORK Program is revised. Conversely, the 

 vast bulk of national R&D budgets is committed to 

 salaries of R&D personnel in public employment, to 

 facilities and equipment comprising public physical 



R&D infrastructure, and to long-term support of a wide 

 range of traditional R&D undertakings. This leaves 

 relatively small portions of national S&T budgets 

 available for new multilateral S&T undertakings or for 

 new, cross-disciplinary research. Hence the role of EC 

 member states in launching and supporting R&D 

 undertakings that break new ground - whether to carry 

 out policy, to pursue emerging research fields, or to 

 build and adapt organizational structures to new 

 demands - is constrained. In this manner, the 

 overwhelmingly greater S&T capacities of the key 

 member states, vis-a-vis the EC Commission, are less 

 disproportionate to those of the Commission in devising 

 initiatives relating to next-generation, cutting-edge 

 research. 



Shedding light on these generalizations about EC 

 member state S&T characteristics are some "shorthand" 

 characteristics of the individual countries, taken largely 

 from an unpublished NSF report entitled "Policies, R&D 

 Priorities and Capabilities of the Key EC Member 

 States," (NSF/INT, 1990). 



