The European Union plans to set up a forum where the continent's top researchers and high-tech firms can pool their resources to meet the challenges posed by Asia and the United States, German Research Minister Annette Schavan said Friday. She said at least 308 million euros (415 million dollars) was needed from the EU to establish a European Institute of Technology (EIT) in order to speed up the process of transforming research and development into marketable products, according to dpa. "It is now important that the (EU) Commission quickly submits a convincing and concrete funding proposal," Schavan said after a meeting of the bloc's research and industry ministers. The EIT, a network of universities, research institutions and companies, could undertake its first projects next year if the Commission gives the go-ahead this summer and the EU parliament follows suit, the minister said. The minister said the 308 million euros was planned for the period from 2008-2013, adding that industry was also "expected to make a substantial contribution to funding." She said the EIT would be a network of "knowledge and innovation communities" and not a new university as the EU had originally envisaged, with its own teaching staff and academic titles. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso proposed in 2005 the creation of an elite European university along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. The research ministers also agreed that, as a kind of frontier research, modern basic research should become an integral part of the concept known as the European Research Area. They stressed the importance of cooperation between academic institutions and industry as a prerequisite of innovation in Europe. -- SPA
