NEW YORK—To attract researchers to Europe and keep talented scientists from leaving the continent, EU policy developers Thursday (December 11) outlined near- and long-term initiatives that enhance career development and ease of working anywhere in Europe.

In January 2004, the European Commission (EC) plans to propose a scientific visa for the European Union. Within the next year and a half, if all goes well, “then Europe will be open to non-European researchers,” Sieglinde Gruber, policy developer for the EC's research directorate-general, told The Scientist. Such a visa for scientists, already found in the United Kingdom, France, and Ireland, would enable researchers to move within the European Union—say, for conferences—instead of having to obtain visas for each country.

Also, by March 2004, 350 to 400 “mobility centers” will open all throughout Europe, dedicated to helping both European and foreign researchers and their families move to and around Europe. “Mobility is difficult—your partner has to leave their job, children have to go to school,” said EC Research Directorate-General Policy Developer Jimmy Jamar. The mobility centers will help with visa access, entry requirements, access to job markets, social security, taxation, housing, day care, access to language courses, and introduction to local culture.

These efforts and other plans were part of a New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) conference on the trans-Atlantic mobility of researchers sponsored by the EC Thursday. They are meant to help ameliorate what “Europe has fretted for the recent decade or more, of 'brain drain' to here in the US,” said Ellis Rubenstein, chief executive officer of NYAS.

Such measures are especially important in light of the EU's objective to increase its overall research and development spending to 3% of the gross domestic product by 2010, a plan “that will require 700,000 additional researchers by the end of the decade,” explained EC Ambassador to the United Nations John Richardson.

The European Union will boost funding for human resources and mobility schemes for researchers to $1.8 billion by 2006, a 60% increase over pre-2002 levels. Funds will go to programs such as the Marie Curie Actions and the Erasmus Mundus initiative starting in 2004, both of which supply fellowships and grants to European and non-European scientists to study or work on the continent, or research elsewhere to bring knowledge back.

Europe also plans to make careers in research more attractive. By 2010, Gruber said all institutions for higher education in the European Union will allow transfer of credits among each other. The EC is also working on transfer of pension rights among countries in the European Union, so researchers do not lose everything upon moves in Europe, said Raffaele Liberali, director of the EC research directorate-general's human factor, mobility, and Marie Curie Actions section. The goal, he explained, is to prevent fragmentation of career development in Europe. By the end of 2004, Liberali added, the EC will recommend a code of conduct for more transparent recruitment policies, so scientists can compare salaries and contracts across institutions.

To help researchers find all the funding opportunities available throughout Europe, the Pan-European Researcher's Mobility Portal was launched in July. In October, Gruber said the Web site was visited by 147,000 individuals.

Finally, the European Union will promote the importance of research and researchers among the general public. “Probably for 2005 or 2006, we will launch a European Researcher Year, just to create better sensitization for society… about these professions and what you are doing for them,” Liberali said. Such action hopefully will help attract young talent to the field, help get researchers public appreciation in Europe, and most importantly, “if there is a social pressure for science, you can be sure the budget will come,” Liberali said.

“The US has a lot to listen to from these proposals—not only on finding a job, but how do you start your life,” said Eric Staeva-Vieira, program manager for the NYAS' Science Alliance. “What they're introducing is really interesting, on family life, human factors. How they implement it is something I'm going to wait and see on.”