Ministers from the world鈥檚 leading industrialised nations agreed last
week to step up efforts to save science in Eastern Europe. But they stopped
short of creating a fund to pay for it.
The meeting of the OECD in Paris agreed to set up a new 鈥榝orum鈥� to help
countries to make 鈥榠ntelligent choices鈥� on big science projects, such as
particle accelerators and research into the human genome. The ministers
asked the OECD to carry out a full inventory of all 鈥榖ig science鈥� facilities
in Eastern and Central Europe.
They pinpointed four 鈥榲ital areas鈥� for cooperation with Eastern Europe:
training, strengthening the science infrastructure, technology transfer
and the conversion of military industry to civilian needs.
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Russian science minister Boris Saltykov, who attended the meeting as
an observer, said that there had been 鈥榖road agreement鈥� on the idea of a
special fund or agency to support basic research in Eastern Europe. But
the form of the fund remains unclear.
The French research minister, Hubert Curien, hinted that France will
soon take the initiative on the idea of an international agency to fund
science in the East. 鈥楾he governments of interested countries must get together
now and it is not impossible that France may play a major role in coordinating
this business,鈥� he said.
Britain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands backed the French idea.
But the US was less keen. Allan Bromley, science adviser to President Bush,
argued for joint initiatives and said that the US was looking for ways to
ensure that money 鈥榞oes to science, not bureaucracy鈥� and only to 鈥榦utstanding
蝉肠颈别苍迟颈蝉迟蝉鈥�.
Curien, who chaired the OECD meeting, warned that the new forum would
not be an excuse to wheel out 鈥榓ll the ideas which have been put on ice,
probably for good reasons鈥�.
Bromley stressed that 鈥榮cience now needs such expensive instruments
that no country can go it alone鈥�. This, together with the ending of the
Cold War, meant that 鈥榝or the first time, we are dealing with the true internationalisation
of science鈥�.
