Pinching words from U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the European research, innovation and science commissioner, yesterday at the Royal Society laid out her vision for the future of European science and technology.
Thousands have recently signed a petition calling for a simplification of European Union research funding rules and today Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the European Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner, responded to those complaints with a speech promising to make it easier to apply for and manage research grants.
Still, as of yet, there is no presidential science adviser, no commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, no head of the National Institutes of Health and no heads of science at the Environmental Protection Agency or the Departments of Energy and Agriculture.
Paul Boyle, president of Science Europe, promised Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn that his new organization would help deliver on the ERA's promise: "Science Europe is fully committed to playing a central role in the development of the ERA.
The science is in, Commissioner Goodell.
"We were pleased to see improvements in math, and wished we'd seen more in science," said Stuart Kerachsky, acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics at the Education Department, which carried out an analysis of the performance of American students on the test.
The European commissioner for science, Janez Potocnik, appeared this month at a meeting for multinational companies and chided them for slowing the search for alternatives by failing to share information.
"The F.D.A. views any deviation from its high standards for developing or marketing drugs and devices as a potential threat to patient safety and public health," said Norris Alderson, the agency's associate commissioner for science.
✒ If BBC science and natural history commissioner Kim Shillinglaw wins the race to be BBC2 controller, as Broadcast predicts, Michael Gove ought to be pleased – most of the shows she's overseen have been broadly educational, from Bang Goes the Theory to Stargazing Live.
Janez Potocnik, the current research commissioner, lacked science experience as well, "and he was an excellent commissioner," Gannon says.
Janez Potocnik--the lead negotiator for Slovenia's entry into the European Union--has been tapped to be Europe's next commissioner for science and research.
