Innovation Council Research Articles

Science in Europe. Framework programmes evolve.

First aired 2 years ago by European research chief Philippe Busquin, the concept of a European Research Area to promote cross-border research projects and to help coordinate research across the continent has won acclaim. But implementation--particularly the role for basic research in the ERA--is hotly debated. Science has solicited the views of four prominent European statesmen on this issue. Enric Banda leads off with a discussion of ways in which a European Research Council can serve as a support structure and how the European Science Foundation can be involved. In counterpoint, Sir George Radda comments that scientific networking across Europe is proceeding well without the need for a new administrative structure. Hans Wigzell believes that the Framework Programme itself needs to be split into a European Research Council and an Innovation Council to promote large projects. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker suggests strategies that will aid small science and provide a bottom-up approach.

Australian advisory body's first target is to reduce land salinity

sydney The Australian Prime Minister's Science Engineering and Innovation Council has decided its most immediate task is to address the rising salinity in agricultural land.

Knowledge in the information society

The German Council for Research, Technology and Innovation defines the “information society” as a type of society where the acquirement, storage, processing, exchange, diffusion and utilization of knowledge inclusive of their technological possibilities of interactive communication, here become increasingly important. In this notion, knowledge has become the decisive factor for economic growth and technological advance. As a social scientist I transform the term “information society” into processes of automatization of knowledge, which is called its informatization and computerization. It is argued that these processes affect the societal condition of knowledge in that the part of knowledge relating to the contents diminishes while the importance of the technical and/or formal part increases. In contrast to the claim of many social scientists, this trend does not lead to a superficial or shallow type of knowledge. What is changing is the social requirement of professional skills and qualifications. The great looming question about information society then is: Which knowledge do people need to behave competently, effectively and successfully in a world full of computers? The structure of this article is as follows. First I will have a look at the micro‐level of the composition of knowledge, next I will proceed to the historical shift from subject‐specific knowledge to media‐competence and finally I will talk about the meaning of the evolving dominance of—what I will call “media‐competent experts”.