EU aims for more research to reclaim global science leadership

The head of the European Union warned on Tuesday that the continent was “losing ground” in the global technology race and must increase research spending to “turn the tide”.

“We must put research and innovation at the heart of the European economy,” EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen said at a ceremony celebrating the 70th anniversary of the European physics laboratory CERN.

She hailed the world’s largest particle physics laboratory for helping to put the continent “back on the map” for scientific development, following the post-World War II brain drain.

“Just like 70 years ago, we live in times of growing geopolitical competition,” she told the ceremony, which was attended by dignitaries including Princess Astrid of Belgium and the presidents of Italy, Serbia and Slovakia.

“We are in the midst of a global race for the technologies that will shape the world of tomorrow, from clean tech to quantum, from AI to fusion,” Von der Leyen said, lamenting that “while Europe is home to more researchers that both the US and China are losing ground in many areas.

One of them is patent applications, where the European share has decreased in the last two decades from 30 percent to 15 percent.”

Increased spending on research

“It’s time to turn the tide,” she said, adding that she wanted to “increase spending on research in our next budget.”

CERN’s laboratory on the edge of Geneva lies on the border between France and Switzerland. He seeks to discover what the universe is made of and how it works, aiming to advance the limits of human knowledge.

It employs 2,500 people and welcomes around 17,000 visiting researchers each year.

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — a 27-kilometer proton-smashing ring that runs about 100 meters underground — has already begun to shatter into the unknown.

Among other things, it was used to prove the existence of the Higgs boson – called the God particle – which expanded the understanding of how particles gain mass.

CERN aims to build a new large particle accelerator that would eclipse the LHC.

A feasibility study is underway for the 91 kilometer Future Circular Collider (FCC), with CERN earlier this year estimating it would cost around $17 billion.

‘hope’

CERN director-general Fabiola Gianotti insisted on Tuesday that it could become “the most extraordinary instrument ever built by mankind to study the fundamental laws of the universe and address many of the outstanding questions”.

She called on CERN’s member countries – the 22 European countries plus Israel – to “ensure that CERN has a bright future”.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić pledged that his country will double its financial contributions to CERN.

Von der Leyen suggested that if developed, the FCC “could preserve Europe’s scientific edge”.

She said European countries must stand together in the face of competition from China, which is considering building its own 100-kilometre accelerator “to challenge CERN’s global leadership”.

Gianotti said it was important for CERN to build its accelerator before China did.

“It will be very difficult to have two such facilities in the world,” she told AFP.

© 2024 AFP