Tale ved signering av forsknings- og teknologiavtate med USA

Statsråd Djupedals tale 9. desember 2005 i Washington.

Dr. Bement,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to attend this ceremony, and to confirm our commitment to strengthen the bonds between our two countries. This Bilateral Agreement on science and technology shows the willingness of our two countries to formalize and extend our longstanding and fruitful cooperation within science and technology even further.

I wish to give special thanks to the people who have contributed to the realisation of this agreement: Anita Eisenstadt and her colleagues at the State Department, the Norwegian science councillor until recently, Jostein Mykletun, and my own staff. I know that you have all worked hard, and that the final result is to the best for both parties.

As you know, there was a change of government in Norway this fall.

Like our predecessors, the new government gives very high priority to international research cooperation. International research cooperation is of vital importance to ensure the quality and renewal of Norwegian research. We want to encourage Norwegian scientists, research institutions and industry to take advantage of knowledge and technology developed abroad. And we are committed to making Norwegian research communities attractive partners for others.

For a small knowledge-based society, it is important to forge close links with the best international research communities. We find a great many of these in the U.S. Our cooperation with the United States within research, technology and higher education is of immense value, and the United States is the single most important country in our international research cooperation. On our side we can also offer good research groups in a number of areas, and a geographical location that provides excellent research opportunities. There is already extensive collaboration between the U.S. and Norway in many fields of research and technology, like polar research, petroleum research, environmental research, fisheries, medicine and the social sciences. Just this week, NASA and the Norwegian Mapping Authority are revising existing agreements as well as preparing new activities connected to the geodetic antenna at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. The antenna is a strategic element in both astronomy and deep space technology, as well as the global earth observation system.

The seminars that the Norwegian Research and Technology Forum has hosted, has shown a wide range of ongoing research cooperation between American and Norwegian scientists. At the last Forum event, four distinguished U.S. citizens received the Norwegian Royal Order of Merit as an expression of Norway's appreciation of their efforts in promoting U.S.-Norway relations within science and technology.

Our research collaboration has expanded in recent years, and since the 80s more than every fourth Norwegian article with international co-authorship has been written in collaboration with one or more researchers from U.S. institutions. Norwegian and American higher education institutions have extensive formal cooperation. Many agreements have been signed, but there is a huge potential for strengthening institutional cooperation.

But even though we have maintained strong ties with North America, the geographical pattern of research collaboration and student exchange is changing. Data on international co-authorship indicate that Nordic and European collaboration is growing significantly faster than trans-Atlantic collaboration. Several factors may explain this development – but most important is Norway’s participation in the education and research programs of the European Union.

Fortunately, European co-operation is increasingly taking place in a wider global context, as Non-European countries are gradually being included in the EU Framework Programme through bilateral agreements. Since the United States has a separate agreement with the EU and takes part in project activities under the Framework Programme, this also provides a common international research arena for our two countries.

But still, I believe it is important to have a special focus on the U.S. Even though the EU Framework Programme is important in terms of research cooperation and network building, recent statistics show that the EU still invests about a third less in research than the U.S. And the EU/US innovation gap has not narrowed in recent years. To strengthen our ties with North America we have developed a Strategy forNorway’s Research and Technology Cooperation withNorth America. This strategy shall confirm and enhance our strong bonds with the United States and Canada in research and technology. It has been followed up by the Leiv Eiriksson mobility programme, administered by the Research Council of Norway, and by economic resources to forge links between our researchers. The aim is to encourage more Norwegian researchers and fellowship holders to spend time at recognised institutions in the U.S. and Canada and vice versa.

I also believe that more extensive cooperation between researchers will inspire more students to choose one of the highly acknowledged academic institutions in the U.S. for their studies or research training. But recent developments give some cause for concern. Statistics show that the number of Norwegian students who received parts or all of their education in the United States reached a peak in the early 1990s. Since then we have seen a marked decline. In 1991/92 there were 2300 Norwegians enrolled in higher education in the United States, but in 2003 the number had dropped to 1100, reducing the number by 50 percent in little over a decade. This decline is even more significant in light of the fact that the total number of Norwegians studying abroad has more than doubled in the same period. My ministry will therefore develop a Strategy for increased cooperation within higher education with North America. Not only do we want to increase the number of Norwegian students that take part of their higher education in the U.S and Canada, we would also like to see more American students coming to Norway. I believe that this can best be done by strengthening cooperation between North American and Norwegian higher education institutions. I should like to see more cooperation in terms of student and staff exchange, joint projects and maybe even joint degrees. We are now in the process of putting together a working group whose task will be to develop a draft strategy, and our aim is to have this in force a year from now.

I believe that the current efforts to strengthen our ties will benefit both parties. I trust that we can achieve more together than we can (hope to) achieve alone in areas of mutual interest. Today's signing of the Bilateral Agreement confirms our commitment. I am confident that the Bilateral Agreement will inspire enhanced cooperation activities across the Atlantic.

Thank you for your attention!