Careers in Science and Technology: An International Perspective (1995)

The Academia Europaea is an international association of individual scholars having as its prime aim the promotion of education, learning, and research. The scope includes the humanities; law; economic, social, and cognitive sciences; mathematics; medicine; and all branches of the natural and technological sciences. Its objectives are to promote and support excellence in European scholarship, research, and education; further the development of a European identity in scholarship and research; act as a European center for scholars; and conduct interdisciplinary and international studies and research.

The Academia has initiated a number of study groups. The first of these has published a major study of school education in Europe and reported to the Council of Europe's Education Committee. A second study is about to report on psychosocial problems of youth. Ongoing studies include higher education and the teaching of science in schools.

In addition to these studies on training, education, and development, an extremely useful three-day meeting was held in 1991 on the evolution of academic institutions and research councils. The discussions have been summarized in a report published by the Academia, where the problems of Central and Eastern European academies were highlighted. Aid to Central and Eastern European countries has been given by the establishment of, for example, 20 prizes for young Russian scientists in the humanities, biology, and mathematical sciences.

As a contribution to the intellectual formation of European scientists, Academia Europaea has begun publication of the quarterly European Review, which will cover a wide range of topics including human capital development.

The Academia's activities are clearly filling an important gap in European scholarship, with particular emphasis on the cross-fertilization that results from both an interdisciplinary and an international approach, in areas often not treated or sponsored elsewhere. The value of the Academia is beginning to be widely appreciated both in academic and in other circles throughout Europe. The topics indicated here show a range of interest as strong in the humanities and the social sciences as in the natural sciences. Two forthcoming meetings are planned that will set the cultural background and policy considerations on the "Idea of Progress" and the "Integrated Approach to Science and Technology Policy." The latter will be concerned mainly with the incorporation of social science considerations into science policymaking.

The European Commission is the civil service of the European Communities. Its powers extend to preparing and proposing and then to executing and monitoring European Community legislation. The legislation is, however, approved and accepted by the member states through the Council of Ministers, sometimes on the basis of co-decision and after consulting the European Parliament.

In spite of the emphasis on subsidiary in the Maastricht Treaty, the number of different fields in

which the Communities can intervene has greatly increased from the starting point of the coal and steel and the nuclear sectors to include agriculture and fisheries, industry, employment, transport, energy, social affairs, research, training, education, etc.

Therefore, within the Commission, there are many different groups actively working on the subject of human resources in science and technology and related issues such as trends in science and technology careers. Many parts of the Commission have specific initiatives in this area:

• The Human Capital and Mobility Program operated by the Directorate General for Science, Research, and Development directly addresses these issues as part of the Community's main funding program for research and technological development, the Framework Program.

• Training elements exist within each of the specific sectorial research programs that make up the Framework Program. These programs are operated by the Directorates General dealing with science, research and development, industry, telecommunications, agriculture, fisheries, and transport.

• There are the various student exchange programs (e.g., COMETT and ERASMUS) operated by the Task Force for Human Resources, Education, Training, and Youth.

• The part of the Commission dealing with employment, industrial relations, and social affairs is also very interested and active in this area.

• As part of the worldwide drive to improve statistics and indicators on human resources in science and technology, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, with the Directorate General for Science, Research, and Development, OECD, the United States, and Canada, is leading the work on the development of a methodological manual for statistics and indicators in the field of human resources in science and technology and is also making pilot collections of data on a regional basis.

The Commission is not only tackling the problem of human resources in science and technology by addressing the training needs that result directly from new developments in science and technology, but it is also investigating new tools that would enhance human competence, support existing employment, and improve the quality of life.

The European Science Foundation (ESF) was established in 1974. Its member organizations are the major European academies, research councils, and other institutions supporting scientific research nationally. Although these organizations are funded mainly by governments, the ESF itself is a nongovernmental organization. It maintains close associations with other international bodies with interests in scientific research, particularly the Commission of the European Communities and the Academia Europaea.

ESF pays for its activities through the contributions of its member organizations. Contributions are made both to the ESF basic budgets, to which member organizations contribute on a scale that is calculated on the basis of national incomes, and to specific programs and projects in which certain member organizations may have particular interest.

The modes of ESF work vary with the expressed needs and may change in character over the years. Broadly, ESF scientific programs almost always contain teams of scientists who carry out research. ESF scientific networks discuss, plan, innovate, analyze, or coordinate research, but seldom carry out large amounts of substantive research. Programs are often long-term and are funded (except in the developmental phase) by participating member organizations. Networks are usually of shorter term (three years) and funded from the network account within the ESF basic budget. In early 1993, there were 23 ESF scientific networks and 31 scientific programs in operation, with others being prepared. ESF also organizes, jointly with the Commission of the European Communities, a program of European research conferences.

New programs have increasingly been associated with the leading edge of science, such as the program (launched this year) in kinetic processes in minerals and ceramics. This aims to build a European bridge between geoscientists mainly concerned with minerals and minerals scientists working on inorganic substances, and to study the physical chemistry and the kinetics of processes.

Other programs under active discussion are

concerned with the increasingly important technical sciences, such as that on process integration in biochemical engineering (linking basic bioscience with possible industrial applications) and the mathematical treatment of free boundary problems (which is at the interface between engineering and the fundamental natural and mathematical sciences—such changing boundaries are found in material processing, biology, combustion theory, electrochemistry, and fluid flow).

The success of ESF in bringing together the natural and social sciences has been impressive, particularly in those areas, such as the study of environmental matters, where scientific research is vital in providing adequate and accurate evidence to underpin economic and political decisions affecting the world's population.

In line with the many challenging changes that have taken place in Europe over the last few years—and continue to take place—the nature of ESF's support for basic sciences has changed and perhaps has become more responsive to the demands of scientists in the Europe that is now taking shape.

With the transformation of Eastern Europe, the disintegration of some formerly monolithic states, and the decentralization of power to local (and sometimes disputatious) communities, there is a great need for institutions that bring together people of like interests and knowledge to work for a shared purpose and a common good.

The International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) is a nongovernmental organization created in 1931 and a direct successor to the International Research Council established in 1919. The objectives of ICSU are straightforward: to encourage and promote international scientific and technological activity for the benefit and well-being of humanity. As a network of networks, ICSU achieves these objectives through a variety of ways, including the coordination of activities of its 20 scientific union members and its 86 national scientific members. ICSU also stimulates, designs, or participates in the implementation of international interdisciplinary programs and acts as a consultative body on international scientific issues. In pursuing its objectives, ICSU observes and actively upholds the principle of the universality of science.

In addition to the creation of interdisciplinary bodies on such topics as oceans, space science, global environment, biotechnology, natural disasters, and scientific data, one of the driving forces for joint action by the ICSU membership is the common concerns in which all members are stakeholders. An underlying theme in all of ICSU's work is the need to have strong scientific communities in all countries so that the maximum number can participate in national and international scientific actions. As the activities of ICSU become more global in nature, there is an ever growing need for well-trained scientists to contribute to these efforts. The need for increased capacity building in science was an important message from ICSU's ASCEND 21 meeting, which set down the agenda for science and development into the twenty-first century. This agenda was translated in Chapter 35, "Science for Sustainable Development," in Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio, 1992). One of its key recommendations was that by the year 2000 there should be a substantial increase in the number of scientists in developing countries that lack researchers and the exodus of scientists from developing regions should be reversed.

In 1990, the ICSU General Assembly passed a resolution that stated that while "we live in an era of unprecedented progress in science, the attraction of science to the younger generation seems to be lessening in some countries" and that available statistics "point to the danger of insufficient human resources in science and technology as the twenty-first century opens." The resolution asked ICSU, together with other concerned bodies, to examine the magnitude of this problem. Through conferences initiated by its members (in this case, the U.S. National Research Council), through a lectureship program sponsored by UNESCO, and through its Committee on Science and Technology in Developing Countries and Committee on Capacity Building in Science, ICSU hopes to contribute to the solution of these problems.

In addition to its well-known political and military dimensions, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has a third dimension that seeks to encourage interaction between people, to consider some of the challenges facing our modern society, and to foster the development of science and technology. The programs of the NATO Science Committee are a major

component of this third dimension.

The objective of the science program is the enhancement of science and technology through a variety of activities aimed at promoting international scientific cooperation. Most fields of science are eligible for support under general exchange programs of advanced study institutes, collaborative research grants, and science fellowships, while a number of special programs give support in a few specific areas of science considered to be in need of short-term concentrated effort.

Recently, links with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, NATO's Cooperation Partners, have become an important aspect of the science program, in addition to the transatlantic link that has been and remains a major feature of these cooperative programs. The science committee is reorienting some of its activities to address scientific and technological problems being encountered by the Cooperation Partners, members of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. Following consultation with representatives of the Cooperation Partner countries, a number of priority areas have been selected for support:

• Disarmament Technologies: scientific problems related to disposal of nuclear and chemical weapons, defense industry conversion, and safety of nuclear technologies.

• Environment: scientific problems related to reclamation of contaminated military sites, regional environmental problems, and natural and man-made disasters.

• High Technology: scientific problems related to information science, materials science, biotechnology and energy conservation, and supply (non-nuclear).

• Human Resources: problems related to science policy, management, intellectual property rights, and career mobility (e.g., the redeployment of defense industry scientists).

The NATO science program is managed by the staff of the NATO Scientific Affairs Division, under the overall policy guidance of the NATO Science Committee, with the assistance of a number of panels of scientists drawn from all countries of the alliance.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an intergovernmental organization that today comprises 24 democratic nations with advanced market economies, was founded in 1960 with the basic aim of promoting policies to:

• achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment;

• contribute to economic and social welfare throughout the OECD area;

• stimulate and harmonize its members' efforts in favor of developing countries; and

• contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral nondiscriminatory basis.

Member countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD.

Work on human resources in science and technology is undertaken by two subsidiary bodies of the Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy: the group on the science system dealing with policy aspects and the group of national experts of science and technology indicators working with the staff of the Economic Analysis and Statistics Division of the Directorate for Science, Technology, and Industry. It draws on the more general work of the Directorate for Education, Employment Labor, and Social Affairs.

Currently, there are no strictly comparable international statistics on the human resources used in industrial, technological, and scientific activities. This explains the importance of the work undertaken jointly with the Commission of the European Communities for the development of a new manual and new indicators based on the use of national and international education and employment statistics that already exist but do not yet allow reliable international comparisons. These new indicators of stocks and flows are to be used by authorities, universities, and industry to define supply

and demand concerning high-level staff more accurately, taking into account various factors such as population, aging, mobility (including brain drain), enrollment by women in higher education, and the numbers of new university graduates.

The Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) was founded in 1983 and officially launched and inaugurated by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Perez de Cuellar, in 1985. It has succeeded in uniting the most distinguished scientists from the Third World. Currently, it has 325 members from 54 Third World countries, including the 9 living science Nobel Laureates of Third World origin. The founding President of the Academy is the Nobel Laureate Professor Abdus Salam of Pakistan.

The Academy is a nongovernmental, nonpolitical, and nonprofit organization whose main objectives are to support scientific excellence and research in the Third World. It does this by awarding annual prizes to eminent scientists from the Third World who have made significant contributions in science, by providing fellowships to facilitate contacts between research workers in developing countries, and by encouraging scientific research on major Third World problems. The Academy was granted official nongovernmental consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 1985. It is presently located on the premises of the International Center for Theoretical Physics at Miramare, Trieste, Italy, a center sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

In 1988, TWAS assisted in the establishment of the Third World Network of Scientific Organizations (TWNSO). TWNSO is a nongovernmental, nonprofit, and autonomous scientific organization whose objective is to enhance the economic development of the Third World and the cooperation among nations of the south in areas of science and technology critical to their sustainable development. The membership of TWNSO currently stands at 123, including 26 ministries, 42 research councils, and 34 academies in 69 Third World countries.

TWAS and TWNSO are currently promoting the establishment of a network of international centers in the south dedicated to human resource development. The first phase in the development of the network will aim at upgrading a number of existing competent national centers to international levels, to enable them to offer training and research opportunities to other scientists. A comprehensive feasibility study of the project is currently being undertaken in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the ICSU.

In addition, TWNSO, in collaboration with the south center and UNIDO, is compiling an inventory of world-class research and training institutions in various countries in the south with the purpose of facilitating the launching of a comprehensive fellowship program for scientists from the south who wish to pursue research and training in those centers. The first issue of the inventory will be published in September/ October 1993 and will be circulated widely in the south and north.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created in 1950. Its aim is to promote and advance scientific progress in the United States. NSF has a unique role in the federal government: it is responsible for the overall health of science and engineering across all disciplines in contrast to other agencies that support research and development focused on their particular mission (e.g., health or defense). NSF is directed by a presidentially-appointed Director and Board of 24 scientists and engineers, including top university and industry officials. NSF is structured much like a university, with grant-making divisions for the various disciplines and fields of science and engineering.

NSF is also committed to expanding the United State's supply of scientists, engineers, and science educators, and has a variety of programs to encourage and enhance science and math education at all levels from pre-college to graduate education and teacher training. The education and retention of women and minorities in science and engineering is an area of particular concern. NSF is also the federal agency responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating quantitative data on the science and engineering enterprise and has a highly developed system of surveys related to the science and engineering pipeline and workforce. NSF publishes a number of congressionally mandated reports that cover human resource

development topics, including Science and Engineering Indicators, Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, and Indicators of Science and Mathematics Education.