Your Excellency, Minister, ladies and gentlemen
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak at the opening of today's Hungarian Science & Technology Day. It is clear from the programme that Hungary views its role in European science and, in particular, the Framework Programmes as a priority. As a long-standing "champion" of enlargement, the UK Government strongly supports the active participation by the Hungarian research community in the European research programmes.
The importance of science and technology research to Europe's long-term prosperity cannot be underestimated. If Europe is to meet the technological and social challenges that this century will bring, and achieve the vision mapped out by European leaders at the Lisbon Economic Reform Summit last year – "that Europe should become the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010" – then we must grasp the new opportunities for enhanced scientific and technological co-operation within Europe that enlargement will bring. Hungary, as with the other Candidate Countries, is rich in talent and will bring added strength and diversity to the Union.
The Framework Programme has been, and continues to be the key instrument at European level for delivering these objectives.
However, past experience has shown that it can take a long time for those newly associated with the Framework programme to gain the necessary knowledge and understanding to make the most of the opportunities it has to offer, and to build the international links and networks needed to undertake new joint initiatives. The UK therefore welcomes moves to encourage full integration of the Candidate Countries into the Framework Programme and the special measures the Commission is putting in place to help speed up this process. This is no simple task and will require action on many fronts. By way of an example, I strongly support the Commission's proposals to extend existing Fifth Framework Programme projects to take on teams from the Candidate Countries; and to improve information provision to researchers in the Candidate Countries on the funding opportunities under the Framework Programme.
This is of paramount importance both for fostering existing links and for stimulating and encouraging new ones. Commission figures for Fifth Framework Implementation in the year 2000 show that there were 109 cooperation links between Hungary and the UK in that year alone. I look forward to seeing the number of these collaborations increase significantly during the life of next Framework Programme.
Within the general objectives of the Framework Programme, I would like in particular to highlight the role of the mobility programmes in helping to forge the creation of a genuine European scientific community. The Commission is to be congratulated on its proposals for schemes to double the proportion of funding dedicated to mobility under the next Framework Programme. This will mean that many more researchers, including those from the Candidate Countries, will be able to take advantage of these measures to develop their careers and work with teams of the highest excellence.
The new mobility schemes are also designed to address the challenges Europe faces in the battle for global talent. Importantly they will not only encourage the mobility of researchers within Europe, but also with other third countries, and encourage the return to Europe of outstanding European researchers.
UK-Hungary S&T relations
I am confident that today's event will contribute to the strengthening of scientific links between our two countries, both between our scientific communities and our administrations. Indeed, we can already see the benefit of these links within the UK Office of Science and Technology, where a member of the Hungarian Foresight team is currently on secondment to the UK's own Foresight. She has played an important part in the latest UK Foresight review, helping to establish a list of possible topics that Foresight could focus on in the future, and has commented that she has found this an invaluable learning opportunity and is looking forward to returning to Hungary to put into practice what she has learnt during her time here.
Conclusion
I am delighted that this Science and Technology day is taking place. I am sure you will have a stimulating and productive discussion on the role which Hungary and the UK can, together, play in helping to realise the ambitious goals of the European Research Area initiative, and I hope that many relationships are formed which lead to excellent scientific research projects in the future
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