It was heartening to see both the European Commission and European Industry standing shoulder to shoulder on the need to raise R&D spending in Europe. While in most European countries it is still far short of the 3% of GDP proposed at the Lisbon or dot.com Summit , the problem is at least recognised.
One of the major problems we often see is the vertigo inducing gap between the lofty words of these types of communiqués and what actually results. The devil in this case is not in the technological details, but in the implementation.
It is even more heartening to see industry figures such as Pasquale Pistorio, of ST Microelectronics chairing the Technology Platform group of a new European initiative called ENIAC (European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council).
What would really propel Europe ahead would be an integrated strategy involving ENIAC, the European NanoBusiness Association and research groupings such as Phantoms working together.