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The European Union should be spending at least €1 billion a year on security research, a high-level group told European Commission President Romano Prodi on Monday (March 15).
Electronics, information technology and telecommunications are at the heart of solutions to current security challenges, the EU said in a statement. Biosciences are also expected to plan an important part.
The high-level group of 27 leaders, including research commissioner Philippe Busquin and enterprise commissioner Erkki Liikanen, criticized what they called the current artificial divide between defense and civilian research, the lack of specific schemes for security research at the EU level and poor cooperation and coordination across the EU.
These deficiencies are said to "exacerbate the lack of public research funding and present major obstacles to delivering cost-effective solutions," the group said in its report Research for a Secure Europe.
Prodi welcomed the report. "Last Thursday's tragic events in Madrid remind us of the urgency and importance of being prepared against old and new threats to our security,” he said, referring to the bombing of trains in the Spanish capital.
“This report opens a new area of activity in which the added value of closer cooperation, joint efforts and increased investment at EU level is indisputable. That is why we have included security research in our blueprint for the EU's financial perspectives for 2007-2013."
The report suggests beginning a test phase or “preparatory action” on security research to the tune of €65 million between this year and 2006, paving the way for a fully fledged European security research program by 2007.
In line with the objective for the EU to raise spending in research to 3% of average gross domestic product (GDP) by 2010, security and research money would be in addition to funding from the EU Research Framework Programme and other sources.
The first call for proposals for the Preparatory Action will be published in March 2004. Over the coming year, €15 million has been allocated to fund six to eight projects and other supporting activities.
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