European Union R&D Spending.

This article criticizes the editorial entitled "A challenge for the EU," by Pierre Papon published in the August 2003 issue of the journal "Science." Papon began his editorial by emphasizing the disparities in spending on research and development between the United States, Japan and the European Union (EU): 2.8%, 3.0% and 1.9% of gross domestic product (GDP) respectively. Against this background, Papon outlined the European Commissioners' plan to increase EU research and development spending to 3.0% of GDP and then devotes much of the rest of his editorial to EU proposals about spending on basic research in general and for a European Research Council (ERC) in particular. The differences in the research and development figures arise almost entirely from differences in spending by the private sector. Studies of research output whether measured by numbers of papers, citations, or major international prizes in relation to science base spending 3 to 5 years earlier, reveal very big differences among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, with the top performers being Switzerland, Sweden and Israel. Indicators reveal that Europe is investing globally less in research than the United States and the recent trend is not favorable to Europe, because the U.S. industry has continuously increased its research and development funding. Furthermore, funds provided by foundations to academic science are certainly higher in the United States than in Europe.