Briefing Conference on 29-30 January 2008 in Frankfurt (DE)

Public spending on medical research in Europe should be doubled over the next ten years to ensure health and welfare for Europe’s citizens and to nurture a thriving European medical research industry. There should be greater collaboration between European institutions in medical research and improved career paths for medical scientists.  

These are some of the main recommendations of the European Medical  Research Councils (EMRC) White Paper, ‘Present Status and Future Strategy for Medical Research in Europe’ which was debated at a meeting on 30 January 2008 in Frankfurt (Germany) with the participation of the Heads of Medical Research Councils in Europe, Editors of Medical Journals, Presidents of Medical Learned Societies and Deans of Medical Faculties in Europe.  

The audience acclaimed the White paper and made the following recommendations:   

• Increased funding must be by sustainable growth, 
• Collaboration on big programmes is essential,
• Research areas should be determined by health priorities and not only science topics, 
• Collaboration on an improvement of peer review of grants is essential - and peer reviewers should be acknowledged and rewarded, 
• MD/PhD programmes are important and should be of high quality,
• The best researchers - like the Nobel Laureates at The Lindau meeting - should participate in teaching, 
• Novel technologies and research infrastructures are important as well as incentive in terms of decent salaries to attract and retain young researchers  
  

To access the full press release on the Briefing Conference, please click here

Launch of the EMRC White Paper on 6 December 2007 in Brussels (BE)

The EMRC White Paper, ‘Present Status and Future Strategy for Medical Research in Europe’, has been  launched at a meeting held in Brussels on 6 December 2007 co-chaired by Janez Potočnik, EU Commissioner for Science and Research, and Professor Liselotte Højgaard, Chair of the EMRC.
The White Paper is the result of a comprehensive analysis of the current state of medical research within Europe compared with its global competitors, together with an assessment of new challenges facing Europe’s citizens, including changing patterns of disease, environmental issues including global warming, and changing demographic factors such as an ageing population.

To access the full press release on the launch of the EMRC White Paper, please click here.