The Commission published the main results of a consultation on the European Research Area (ERA). The researcher community agreed on the need to attract and retain more leading researchers in Europe and to provide researchers with better and especially business-relevant skills, according to one of the major findings of the survey.

The European Commission published the results of a public consultation on the European Research Area (ERA) launched until 30 November 2011. The respondents indicated in the survey which received 590 contributions, that the most urgent priority is tackling more deficiencies in research careers and mobility. This was followed by problems relating to research infrastructures, knowledge transfer and cross-border collaboration. A broad majority of respondents also highlighted that a higher involvement of women in science will contribute to European socio-economic growth. In position papers, cross-border collaboration, international cooperation, as well as open access to publications and data were on a similar footing to researcher-related issues.

The research community agreed on the need to attract and retain more leading researchers in Europe and to provide researchers with better and especially business-relevant skills. The lack of open and transparent recruitment procedures is regarded as one of the main barriers to internationally mobile researchers. It is also necessary to coordinate research at transnational level to raise research quality, reduce costs and tackle global challenges. The global attractiveness of Europe as a location for researchers and private R&D investment should also be increased by reducing the fragmentation of the European market, and by improving employment and career prospects for researchers.

The Commission will now decide which issues should be addressed as priorities when finalising the ERA Framework, to be tabled in June 2012 with a view to completing ERA by 2014. The findings were presented by Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn at the "ERA conference 2012, Fostering Efficiency, Excellence and Growth", and the Commissioner underlined her intention to get a new ERA-partnership, with stronger role for key stakeholders, and much tougher monitoring of Member States' progress.