ABSTRACT

The link between scientific and technological development and economic progress is widely accepted, one of the conditions for prosperity in modern societies. Developed countries and those seeking to follow in their footsteps have sought accordingly to encourage Science and Technology (S&T) and Research and Development (R&D) activities as part of efforts to drive their economies forward. Governments have found the process difficult; there is no straightforward formula to deal with the range of issues involved. A firm in a particular sector like, say, pharmaceuticals can develop an individual product and governments can do the same in limited spheres, notably in defence projects. But efforts to bring about improvements on a wider scale have often proved resistant to easy solutions. The elements involved are diverse and vary from one scientific area to another. Matters of pure research tend to be under-funded and long-term in nature. In areas of applied research, competing firms may be uneasy collaborators; questions of state aids and intellectual property rights (IPRs) may soon be raised. And who is to select the projects? How is the work to be paid for? Issues of national prestige come into play even as the need for multilateral cooperation becomes more evident. It is not proposed to add here to the extensive literature on these topics but to describe the ways in which Japan and the EU managed to collaborate on an increasing scale. Achieving this cooperation was a step-by-step affair as the terrain was first examined at expert level, programmes compared and an agreement eventually reached as a basis for future efforts.