Estonia calls on Europe to boost R&D spend

Finance ministers across Europe need to be convinced that the EU should spend more on R&D, according to Mailis Reps, the Estonian research minister.

Reps told the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (Itre) on 11 July that providing a rationale for such investment will be one of the priorities of Estonia’s six-month presidency of the Council of Ministers, which started this month. Research ministers have “plenty of evidence that research and innovation has a positive impact on the economy and society”, but they need to get better at convincing those holding the purse strings, she said.

“We have to be able to translate this knowledge into arguments for those who negotiate the budgets, both at EU level and at national level. It is the sad reality that the EU remains far from achieving its 3 per cent target on research and innovation investments.”