Report on “The Importance of Physics in the Economies of Europe”
On October 15th, the European Physical Society (EPS) presented the new report “The Importance of Physics in the Economies of Europe” at the Press Club Brussels Europe. The report was commissioned by the EPS as an independent economic analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) (you can download the complete report and the EPS Executive Summary here). This study, using statistics available in the public domain through Eurostat covering 31 European Countries – the 28 EU countries, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland – from 2011 to 2016, shows that the physics-based industrial sector generated over 16% of total turnover and over 12% of overall employment within Europe’s business economy. It is worth mentioning that the article published on Science Business about the presentation of this report has been in the top 10 of the most read articles since its publication on October 22nd, and still remains there on December 4th, when this post was written).
The event, addressed to Members of the European Parliament of the ITRE committee, Policy Officers of the European Institutions, Commissioners, scientific societies, R&D professionals and any person interested in science policy, was conducted by the honourable Prof. Dr. Christophe Rossel (IBM Research, Switzerland). About 30 attendees assisted the presentation of the report by the President of the EPS, Prof. Dr. Petra Rudolf (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), and the contributions of the invited speakers: Dr. Angelo Volpi (Science and Technology Officer, National Research Council of Italy), Dr. Anais Rassat (Knowledge Transfer Office at CERN, Switzerland) and Dr. Gabrielle Thomas (Innovation Ambassador, M Squared Lasers, United Kingdom).
The EPS report emphasizes the growing contribution of physics to the economies of European countries and how vital it is to maintain and increase the investment in physics research at a crucial moment of the budget negotiations for the EU’s next research programme (Horizon Europe). The proposal from the Commission for the incoming framework programme suggests that 52 per cent of the budget should go to high-profile policy challenges. Most of these policy challenges, including some of the more highlighted topics such as climate change and quantum computing, would draw at least to some extent on physics research. At the report’s launch event, the EPS President, Petra Rudolf, pointed out that often, breakthrough technologies from science research come in the longer term. This is a message that needs to continually be reminded to policymakers who frequently want evidence of short-term benefits. In summary, the study makes it clear that businesses in the physics-based sector continue to contribute significantly to employment, innovation and growth in Europe.
