Fifteen or so years later, we see another financial crisis ahead here in Europe: a crisis of the European social and political model...European companies no longer generate sufficient profits to fuel the social model – and to fund long-term research."
"The past few years have been marked by global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the energy crisis and high inflation, and the increased frequency of climate-related extreme event...
In this context, the EU remains a scientific powerhouse and has even improved its overall innovation performance in the past 7 years.However, it still lags behind the United States, Japan and China in terms of research and development expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product. Despite producing 20 % of the world’s scientific output in 2020, ranking second only to China, the EU falls behind in terms of the world share of the top 1 % most-cited scientific publications, ranking third (after China and the United States). In academic research, the EU specialises in humanities, the United States in health technologies and China in digital technologies. Scientific output in the EU is heterogeneous across regions and concentrated in a few areas, and the EU’s scientific ecosystem is facing a brain drain issue, which could be addressed by offering more competitive wages, cutting-edge infrastructures, and fair promotion processes in academia. While the EU is a patenting leader, its position has been declining due to China’s rise, with the EU’s share of the world’s patent applications declining from 31 % to 19 % between 2000 and 2018. The EU excels in patenting in the fields of advanced manufacturing and green technologies but underperforms in digital technologies...
