we're in the business of being in business...
Posted on 05/10/2005 1:30:23 PM PDT by Leo Carpathian
LONDON — The Seventh Framework Program (FP7), the European Union's next collaborative research plan scheduled to run from 2007 to 2013, is expected cost about $86 billion. It would create nearly 1 million jobs, according to an impact assessment by the European Commission. The report attempts to compare the impact of the proposed plan over the next 25 years with a baseline of moderate growth in European Union research funding and with a "do-nothing" approach.
A key part of FP7 is the European Commission's proposal to double the level of spending to an average of 9.6 billion euros (about $12.3 billion) per year or 67 billion euros (about $86 billion) over the duration of the program. The doubling is cited as necessary to help the European Union fulfill its strategy "to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world," the so-called Lisbon strategy.
The European Union's framework includes broad programs covering everything from life sciences and materials to software and societal aspects of technology adoption. The frameworks have generally included information technology and electronics as major elements. FP7 is expected to include nano-materials and production technologies as one of its major themes, in addition to an enlarged "information society" theme.
The report's premise that nearly 1 million jobs would be created by 2030 is based on estimates of research benefits and the results of the research on the continent's gross domestic product, the European Commission said.
The proposed doubling will create an estimated 925,000 extra jobs in Europe by 2030, of which up to 215,000 will be research positions, the report said.
Depending on funding levels after FP7, the impact assessment also claims that doubling the EU research budget could increase Europe's GDP by up to 1 percent over the same period.
The impact assessment looked at three policy options in particular: a "do-nothing" scenario of ending European Union support for R&D, a "business-as-usual" approach of continuing FP6 in its current form and the proposed FP7 option.
The relative merits of each option were analyzed in the context of globalization, the need for increased growth, competitiveness and jobs, environmental and social concerns and weaknesses in the European research system.
The report suggested that a "do-nothing" approach would mean a GDP drop of 0.84 percent and the loss of about 800,000 jobs, including 87,000 research-related jobs compared with the "business-as-usual" approach.
A "business-as-usual" approach — continuing research funding at current levels, with no change in focus — represents an inadequate response to new challenges facing Europe and to the renewed emphasis placed on the Lisbon agenda, the report said. Furthermore, the expanding European Union, which now has 25 member states, means that maintaining the status quo would result in a fragmented research effort.
We are OK if EUweenie gubmint is going economize.
86,000 per job. pretty goood if ya ask me.
They can't buy the jobs back.
Performance and Cost versus the never-ending supply and demand relationships dictate whether you will keep your jobs or stay in business.
The EU (or just France) recently got past the 35 hour work week rule.
I welcome the competition !!!
Over 6 years ... (2007 - 2013) it's lookin' worse all the time
Creating meaningless jobs to say you created jobs... Sounds like a dot com re deaux.
Too bad they don't do a similar impact assessment for reducing taxes, reducing the burden of socialist institutions on GDP, reducing bureaucracy, increasing personal freedom, etc.
Kinda like Bll Clinton getting all those Tyson chicken processing jobs into Arkansas. Lotsa jobs. Not worth a crap. But lotsa jobs.
Report authors ignorant of broken window fallacy, says me.
"86,000 per job. pretty goood if ya ask me"
Almost $93,000.00 per job, according to my math. No mention of average salary, length of program or any other objective measure. Also, being a research program, I have my doubts as to whether the initial "investment" will cover ongoing research expenditures.
The US could "create" a job paying $93,000.00 per year for every citizen of working age for a "mere" $1.86 trillion per year. Ain't that something? Trouble is, the beneficiaries of all these jobs are also the ones who pay for it, so it's a less-than-zero-sum game, once the inevitable bureaucratic bloat attaches itself to the cashflow.
"ignorant of broken window fallacy, says me."
Says me too. Please try explaining broken window fallacy to the protectionists on FR though.
"Creating meaningless jobs to say you created jobs"
Keynesian economics at work.
Sounds like what they may be fostering is deficit spending on less than useful jobs with resulting impacts on inflation and interest rates - In other words, your typical Gov't Central Planning exercise.
(No nitpicking please)
Looks like a "buzz word" list from a new college grad's resume.
I predict the program will COST the EU 900,000 jobs, for reasons anyone can understand.
you sir are no seer, just a smart, observant individual
Whoa, waiddaminnud...they're actually creating 215,000 jobs in research and projecting that the upshot of those 215,000 jobs is another 710,000 based on research success? I love an optimist, but jeezelouise...
we're in the business of being in business...
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