research and innovation are vital to drive the competitiveness of our economies
last year for the first time a european university topped the world league tables for scientific research
it was cambridge university based in the region i represent
at that university but also at many less well-known institutions and businesses large and small i have seen cutting-edge research funded by the eu through the eur fifty billion framework programme
sadly though this framework programme also has a reputation for being the most complex and bureaucratic in the world
last autumn this parliament voted unanimously on a series of recommendations to simplify that bureaucracy
what is the commission doing to implement those reforms
