Report on S&T Cooperation between Europe and the United States of America

While the US is one of the most important industrial partners of the EU, information on the means and extent of S&T cooperation between Europe and the US is neither systematically nor readily available. Often countries themselves re-orientate their strategies and internationalisation of their S&T policies according to emerging competitiveness and economic challenges. To obtain better insights into current S&T cooperation of Europe with the US, a questionnaire has been circulated to the delegates of the Strategic Forum for International S&T Cooperation (SFIC) in 2010. This aimed at providing an overview of their S&T cooperation policies, their dynamics, government strategies and related experiences in S&T cooperation with the US. Based on analysis of questionnaire responses, this report provides a short assessment of the status of public S&T cooperation. The analysis draws on 26 completed questionnaires covering 22 MS and 4 associated countries to FP7 (i.e. SFIC observer countries) and an additional questionnaire representing activities of the European Commission. As agreed by the SFIC Task Force on Priority Setting this report presents a simple analysis of the data received, without introducing additional elements/analytical processes such as comparative analysis using input-output indicators or benchmarking. Report summarizes the main findings in S&T cooperation with the US from a comparative perspective. Where possible, it points to underlying reasons for successful practices in the EU-US S&T cooperation in different thematic areas, especially in the field of energy research. Hence good practices, common objectives and open questions were identified, which, in turn, fed more focused discussions and possible transnational coordination of certain internationalisation policies of SFIC members and observers with the US.