ESTO

National Research Activities on Sustainable Development

The study on Identifying and Assessing National Research Activities on Sustainable Development (SD) was set up through the ESTO (European Science and Technology Observatory) network. The report aims to identify the national, publicly funded research programmes and assess the way in which each research programme addresses SD, namely by answering the following questions:

• What can be considered best practice in the organisation of programmes targeted towards SD on the national level?

• What can be learned from experiences in other countries, and what practices can be transferred from one national context to another?

• How can national research programmes contribute to supporting SD strategies on the national and on the EU level?

The study mapped the key national actors involved in SD and identified and assessed the national research programmes in support of SD in selected thematic areas in seven European countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the UK.

Seri produced the report for Austria.

The project concluded that there are a number of key issues that influence the thematic and the organisational set-up of the national programmes, which include:

• the national research context and the barriers to implementing SD research

• the existence of a national SD strategy and its relationship to other policy areas, including research policy, and

• the existence of umbrella or framework programmes and strategies.

These issues affect the ability of national programmes to address multi- and trans-disciplinary research that form the basis of research programmes in support of SD.

Co-operation between research programmes on EU level could follow through an exchange of experience, or along thematic lines identified in the targeted programmes. This could include programmes that focus on areas such as sustainable consumption, sustainable technologies, sustainable food production, sustainable transport or sustainable regional development. It is also possible to look at ways of learning from best practice examples in organisational terms. This includes concepts and mechanisms that address the organisation of trans- and multi-disciplinary research programmes. There is also scope for learning from national integrated targeted programmes for developing programmes on the EU level.