Research for growth? : the contested origins of European Union research policy (1963–1974)

Abstract

This thesis examines the difficult creation of a common European research policy as part of the process of the emergence of the European Community (EC)/European Union (EU) as an increasingly powerful global political and economic actor. It shows that strong discursive continuity and institutional path-dependency, together with the ability of the promoters of the common research policy to adapt their claims to a broader ideational framework, were the key factors that enabled the EC to enlarge its role in a field in which it originally lacked policy competence, and in which states have traditionally been reluctant to pool national sovereignty in supranational institutions. Moreover, the concept of EC/EU research policy, and the concrete steps towards its realisation, would not have been possible without three fundamental ideational and political transformations: the changing relationship between science and the state and the subsequent establishment of national institutions and practices to promote and orient scientific activity the emergence of economic growth as an ubiquitous political objective in all industrialised countries and the increasing conceptualisation of science in economic terms the rapid liberalisation of the world markets, where knowledge soon became regarded as a vital resource for power and money. These three developments were the origins of the crucial change in perception of the European policymakers concerning not only scientific research but also the major goals of European integration.