In about a week’s time, the research ministers will gather at the informal competitiveness meeting in Umeå to discuss several important issues for the future of European research policy. Discussions will focus on governance of the European Research Area (ERA) on the one hand, and on the other hand how the interaction between education, research and innovation (known as the ‘knowledge triangle’) can be strengthened.

Minister for Higher Education and Research Tobias Krantz, what are your expectations of the meeting in Umeå?
I hope that we can have a constructive discussion on how to make the European Research Area more effective. The EU needs an ambitious research policy to be able to strengthen its competitiveness in an era of globalisation. This is about turning the focus of the EU’s research programmes to major challenges for society (such as climate change and common diseases), but also about the fact that we can do more to coordinate our actions around the resources earmarked in national budgets in order to achieve a greater joint impact.

How will the results from the discussions in Umeå be used in future research issues?
The idea of the Umeå meeting is that our discussions will lead to proposals that allow trenchant decisions to be taken at the formal Council meeting at the beginning of December.