Abstract
The paper offers a short and personal review of the NIEPS project. It starts with the ambition of the European Community to develop a ‘European research area’. The paper then presents the terms of reference of this thematic network, fi nanced by the European Community under its fi fth research framework. These objectives and the architecture of the project are excellent examples of building a European research area. The last part contains an assessment of the attainment of these objectives. The method is intuitive and highly personal. The paper does not summarize the main results of the project; instead it gives a personal account of what happened and what was retained. In January 2004 the fi nal fi nancial settlements of NIEPS are nearly fi nished: a perfect context to look back and make a short history and even shorter assessment of the process. I am very grateful to our colleagues in the Finnish Population Institute because they gave us the opportunity to publish the results of this review. Towards a European research area In a communication from the Commission of the European communities to the council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social committee and the committee of the regions (COM 2000,6) the Commission defi nes the challenges for the research policy in the 21st Century. They start from the need for Europe to achieve successfully the transition to a knowledge-based economy. One of the key factors of success is to create a European research area. This idea encompasses in the fi rst place “Networking of existing centres of excellence in Europe” (p. 8). Another feature of the idea is that “the European research system must be organized in such way as to preempt and take account of needs arising at the different stages of implementation of public policies: drafting, decision-taking, implementation, monitoring. Policy-makers must be able to draw on precise knowledge, which is as Yearbook of Population Research in Finland 40 (2004), pp. 189–198
Highlights
The paper offers a short and personal review of the NIEPS project
In a communication from the Commission of the European communities to the council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social committee and the committee of the regions (COM 2000,6) the Commission defines the challenges for the research policy in the 21st Century
One of the key factors of success is to create a European research area. This idea encompasses in the first place “Networking of existing centres of excellence in Europe” (p. 8). Another feature of the idea is that “the European research system must be organized in such way as to preempt and take account of needs arising at the different stages of implementation of public policies: drafting, decision-taking, implementation, monitoring
Summary
In a communication from the Commission of the European communities to the council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social committee and the committee of the regions (COM 2000,6) the Commission defines the challenges for the research policy in the 21st Century They start from the need for Europe to achieve successfully the transition to a knowledge-based economy. First it is mentioned that the co-operation may result in the development of similar research programs in each of the institutes, and second, these common research programs facilitate the building of common research activities This increases the “analytical power of the research because of the opportunity to observe a higher variance in the determinants of the phenomena under investigation.”.
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