Brussels rewrites mission of 'Eurolabs'

摘要

Europe's much criticized Joint Research Centre (JRC) was relaunched this week. Its new mission is explicitly to support European Union (EU) policies and meet the needs of European citizens. The JRC brings together seven institutes, including 15 centres and reference laboratories, and acts as an EU reference centre for science and technology. Its largest site, at Ispra in northern Italy, hosts the Institute for Advanced Materials; the Institute for Systems, Informatics and Safety; the Space Applications Institute; and the Environment Institute. The Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements is in Geel, Belgium; the Institute for Transuranium Elements is in Germany; and the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies in Seville, Spain. The institutes employ 1,820 staff, 80 per cent of whom are scientists or engineers.