Brussels, 3rd December 2001

Key words: public understanding of science, survey, science and society

EMBARGO Thursday 6 December 2001 at 12.30 (CET).

On 6 December, Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin will present to the press the main results coming out from interviews with 16,000 citizens of the 15 Member States . This very large survey has been undertaken at the initiative of the Commission to assess public opinion on several topical subjects related to science and technology.

Philippe Busquin will then outline the action plan which will be adopted in the coming days by the Commission, following the Council resolution of 26 June . The plan aims to improve the relationships between science and society so as to allow our countries to fully benefit from the advances of science and technology.

The main messages coming out of the Eurobarometer survey are as follows:

• science remains a very positive value of our society; citizens expect a lot from scientific progress and want the political decisions to rely more on experts' advice;
• however, there is a real gap between science and society (e.g. 45% of the people interviewed claim they are neither interested nor informed about science and technology);
• there are negative aspects reported by some people and a majority calls to reinforce the control of research activities;
• there is large support for European research, in particular the need to better co-ordinate research, and enlargement, which is seen to promote the scientific potential of both the candidate countries and the current Member States;
• finally, as measured by this survey, Europeans' scientific literacy is stable compared with 1992 (previous survey undertaken by the Commission).

The measures which the Commission proposes to implement jointly with the Member States to address some of the problems highlighted by the survey are grouped in 3 strands:

• to promote scientific education and culture
• to bring scientific policy and citizens closer
• to develop a responsible science.

Other news items might be addressed, such as the next Research Council (10 December), human cloning and space.
Interested journalists should contact Michel Claessens.

For further information please contact:

Michel Claessens, European Commission, Research DG, Information and Communication Unit
Tel: +32.2.2959971, Fax: +32.2.2958220
E-mail: michel.claessens@ec.europa.eu.