The goal of creating a European Research Area (ERA) is to exploit the many advantages that Europe has in research and development. If Europe is to keep up with its competitors in global research, the European Union has recognised the need to foster the coordination of Member States’ science and technology policies.

The creation of the ERA will address the absence of an adequate network within which European research can be carried out. The idea is that the pockets of research excellence which exist throughout Europe will be more easily united and combine to become greater than the sum of their parts.

Europe has a long-standing tradition of excellence in research and innovation, and European teams continue to lead progress in many fields of science and technology. The EU sees the establishment of the ERA as similar to building a research equivalent of the common market. It will better coordinate research activities at national and European level and help to overcome the fragmentation in research policy which exists between EU member states. It will also play a fundamental role in reaching the target set by the Barcelona EU Council to increase research spending to 3% of GDP by 2010.

In 2007, the European Commission conducted an online consultation on a Green Paper on the European Research Area. The consultation focused on six main dimensions: realising a single labour market for researchers; developing world-class research infrastructures; strengthening research institutions; sharing knowledge; optimising research programmes and priorities; and opening ERA to the world.

The UK HE Europe Unit and Universities UK coordinated a UK HE sector response to the consultation and will continue to influence developments in this area.