EU seeks to reverse the brain drain

Citation

(2002), "EU seeks to reverse the brain drain", Education + Training, Vol. 44 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2002.00444bab.013

EU seeks to reverse the brain drain

EU seeks to reverse the brain drain

The EU research council president, Francois-Xavier de Donnea, and European Commissioner Philippe Busquin, have backed plans to create a Commission-funded body to promote researcher mobility in the EU. The new body would provide advice and support to researchers in the EU, act as a centre for study on researcher issues and be a pressure group to lobby for measures to boost mobility. It is hoped that the new centre, for which the Commission has promised funding, will be operating by the end of next year.

The idea is part of moves to reverse the brain drain to the USA and to attract talented European researchers working in the USA back to Europe. Mr de Donnea explained that, under current arrangements, it is "often easier for a political refugee to come to Europe than for a researcher with a diploma". He added that the Belgian EU presidency wanted to see the creation of a homogeneous, Europe-wide PhD programme to encourage mobility. Moves to strengthen multidisciplinary and multinational research teams were also needed to encourage this process of exchange and opening up. He called for Europe to learn from the USA, where researchers "work in an atmosphere of openness and global mobility", and where venture capital, research funding and equipment were all readily available. Mr Busquin said that more needed to be done to encourage the formation of specialized, international teams of scientists and to include a wider variety of researchers in Commission programmes. More also needed to be done to open up EU research activity to third-country researchers.