Science and technology for development: coherence of the common EU R&D policy with development policy objectives

The discussion paper looks at the policy coherence for development in the area of research. The focus is less on finding the cases of incoherency, but seeing whether the common EU research and development (R&D) policy is designed and implemented in a manner which provides for positive impact on developing countries. The internationalisation of R&D at the EU level is receiving more attention, there is still significant room for setting the priorities, designing the instruments and organisational procedures which would place policy coherence with development objectives sufficiently high to provide for the synergies of the two areas. Due to the complexity of the EU R&D, the analysis is carried out at the level of common EU R&D policy and does not take account of the Member States activity in the research area. The paper draws mostly on the EU policy documents, strategy papers and evaluations, carried within the European Commission. In addition, a number of interviews was carried out at different EU institutions to support the literature and provide additional information.