Robert-Jan Smits: "Spain needs R&D or it will get stuck"

Robert-Jan Smits has come to be the director of research for the European Commission at a difficult time, in the middle of the crisis. But this Dutchman is convinced that the smart way out is more science, more research and more innovation. In Madrid earlier this month to participate in the conference Toward a Union of Research and Innovation: Main Challenges, organized by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Smits said that the gap between more and less advanced countries in R&D is widening (Germany, for example, is increasing its public expenditure this year by seven percent). And in this scenario, "Spain is at the crossroads, where it must choose between investing in order to move toward a knowledge-based economy, or getting stuck where it is."

"We prefer to be civil servants; in the US everyone wants to be an entrepreneur"

The EU has failed to meet its goal of spending three percent of its GDP on R&D by 2010, falling short at two percent. After a big debate in the European Commission, Smits explains, they've decided to maintain the funding status quo: first, because not doing so would mean abandoning the research boost; second, because it would send a message to Spain's minister for science and innovation, Cristina Garmendia, and her counterparts to do whatever they feel like, instead of working toward a common goal; and third, because President Obama has pledged three percent of GDP for science, and the United States is getting closer to that target.

How are European governments reacting? Earlier this month, Zapatero and Merkel met to discuss innovation, among other things. For Smits, this is essential because it means they're seeing to the future, trying to figure out how to make the economy grow and create new jobs, and "innovation is the answer to this."

Research and innovation may not be the same. But as Smits sees it, the important thing at these top-level meetings is for our leaders to talk about promoting the knowledge-based economy and working together to combat the biggest social challenges, "such as the aging population and food safety." "We can't have 27 strategies; they've got to be integrated."

This goes for innovation as well. "For instance, Europe has standardized the GSM and this has been essential for the mobile telephony sector. The United States has set the WiFi standard. Now who is going to determine the standard for electric cars: Europe, the US or China? If it's not Europe, it will be a huge blow to our automobile industry."

On R&D spending, is there a new deadline to reach the three percent? "Not yet, but we hope it will be included in the European 2020 strategy," says Smits, who points out the need to count "not only what goes into the system - investment - but also what comes out of it; in other words, parameters such as the number of patents or technology companies created." But no matter how many objectives the EU sets, it is ultimately up to each government to make the right decisions.

"Germany, for example, has totally restructured its economy, with budget cuts in many areas. But this year it's allocating ¤12 billion to R&D, 7.2 percent more than in 2010 and 54 percent more than in 2005. That's the right strategy." The British government has maintained its science funding, ring-fencing it for the next four years, and France is also investing more in research and innovation. "Governments who don't make the right decisions will pay for it later."

What about Spain, with major cuts in R&D spending last year and planned for 2011? "The situation is very difficult, and I know that Garmendia is making a big effort to keep the budget more or less stable this year, after the big cuts of 2010."

The Commission's big concern, says Smits, is that there is still a big gap between truly innovative countries and not-so-innovative ones, and that this gap is widening. In the future, he thinks that there will be "islands of excellence and regions that aren't so advanced." But he also calls for a dose of realism: "We don't need, for example, a nanotechnology center in every region. But if the countries at the back of the pack don't make a big effort, they're going to fall even farther behind."

Why is Europe so excellent at science, yet it fails when it comes to making money from it? Smits points out several factors. "The United States is an entrepreneurial culture; Europe, less so. Our young people prefer to be civil servants, whereas in the US, nobody wants to work for the government; everyone wants to be an entrepreneur." There are also a lot of regulations and red tape in Europe, and there isn't a smooth relationship between research and business: "When scientists discover something, they publish it, put it in a drawer and start another project, whereas in the US, they try to sell it. Now there are initiatives to get past this, such as a European patent market, which allows many unexploited ideas to be used."