A European flavour

摘要

The Society is helping to assess how the UK's relationship with the European Union affects the scientific community. Not surprisingly, there is currently a high level of interest in the UK's relationship with the European Union. In order to understandhow national interests are influenced and affected by the EU, various Government departments are investigating where the balance of powers (or 'competencies') lie between the UK and EU. Many of these competencies are relevant to science. Research and development is one of the areas under review, and to gather information, the Science Council recently organised a roundtable discussion with attendees from across science and engineering. The group discussed examples of where EU action had a positive or negative impact on UK research and innovation. Common concerns included to what extent we should focus engagement on the European Parliament, the European Council or the European Commission, given the inevitable limitation of resources.