Preparing Europe for a new renaissance: how science can help restore sustainable prosperity

On 6 October 2009, ERAB (European Research Area Board) presented its first annual report "Preparing Europe for a New Renaissance--A Strategic View of the European Research Area". As a vision paper it paints a picture, in broad strokes, of where the European Research Area (ERA) needs to go by 2030--for the sake of the European Union, and of the world at large. For this purpose, the ERAB Conference entitled "Preparing Europe for a new Renaissance" was held on May 6-7, 2010, in Seville, Spain. The aim of the ERAB Conference was to discuss widely with public and private stakeholders the implementation of the Strategic view on European Research Area. The Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn deserves a special mention since set a challenge to the ERAB Conference in her speech. Thus, she asked the conference to provide her with ten concrete proposals on how research, innovation and science can contribute to addressing society's grand challenges, to prepare Europe's post-crisis smart, green economy and society. The ERAB welcomed the challenge. Based on the feedback from the conference delegates and own discussions the ERAB came up with 10 key recommendations. Below we reproduce a speech by the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn given at the ERAB Conference.