Europe, Research System In

Today, Europe (along with the United States and Japan) is one of the three major international players in science and uses its large resources of funding, scientific infrastructure, and personnel to produce substantial outputs in terms of publications, patents, and Nobel Prizes. As both science and science communication have become increasingly globalized, Europe's contemporary role has become increasingly visible outside Europe, as well as within it. In addition, the European Union (EU) has made important efforts to study the science–society interface and to improve communication between European scientists and the European public to ensure that public awareness keeps pace with rapid scientific and technological development.

Without disregarding the great achievements in mathematics and astronomy in ancient Egyptian and Asian cultures, it is legitimate to say that the foundations of science in its present form evolved to a large extent in Europe. This includes substantial advances not only in knowledge but also in the development of specific scientific methods and the evolution of the social organization of modern science. Several centuries BCE, Greek mathematicians developed the study of mathematics as a scientific discipline and developed the idea of a strict proof or a set of explicit methodological rules used to separate truth from error. In the beginning of the 17th century, Francis Bacon, the great British philosopher, laid the philosophical foundations of empirical science, or science based on systematic observation and experimentation. Important research instruments such as telescopes and microscopes were first constructed and used by European researchers such as Galileo Galilei in Italy and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek and Christiaan Huygens in the Netherlands. Isaac Newton developed his theory of classical mechanics in London. Researchers such as Louis Pasteur in Paris and Robert Koch in Berlin created the microbiological basis of modern medicine, Gregor Mendel in Austria created the basis of today's genetics, and James Clerk Maxwell, a Scot, the theory of electro-magnetism. The university, still a major organizational form of science worldwide, was shaped in its current form in Europe.

However, in the beginning of the 20th century, the global center of science moved from Europe to the United States, and Europe lost its leading role. In the 1960s and 1970s, Japan also emerged as an important player—second after the United States in a comparison of individual countries, third if one treats Europe as a unit. In the decades to come, the positions of all three leaders will be challenged by the rapid modernization of China and India, which have shown a tremendous dynamism in the expansion of their research and development (R&D) systems. Meanwhile, Europe is rivaling the U.S. dominance in international science. This is due in part to the growing importance of new players such as China but also to the improved efficiency of R&D in Europe, caused by the increasing integration and internationalization of European research, as well as high growth rates for R&D expenditures in Europe.

In this entry, “Europe” refers primarily to western Europe, in particular to the European Union (EU) countries plus a few additional ones such as Switzerland and Norway that are not EU members but cooperate closely with it. Description of the R&D systems in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, including Russia, and other post-Soviet countries is beyond the scope of this discussion. While statistical indicators show that Europe's R&D capacity is indeed concentrated in Western Europe (the most important countries in this respect being Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Sweden), it should be noted that some Eastern European countries have a workforce of well-trained and experienced scientists and engineers, and—in selected scientific and technological areas, such as space technology, these are also home to major scientific and technical achievements.

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