Recent News from Partner Countries

The Belgian Science Policy is a federal administration which covers a very broad area. It manages an annual budget of about 513 million Euro and has the following mission:

·    Preparation, execution and evaluation of science policy and its extensions.

·    In particular, on Belgian Government instructions, implementation of scientific and technical means in support of Federal Authority competences.

·    Development of a permanent knowledge resource within scientific and technical spheres at the service of the Federal Authority.

·    Support to the 10 Federal Scientific Institutions under control of the Federal Science Policy, and also to the STIS and Belnet, for the administrative, financial and material management, the coordination and valorisation of research activities and activities as scientific public service.

·    In addition, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Science policy agreed in January 2002 to charge the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office with the question of the cultural goods of the Jewish Community plundered during the war.

·        Multi-annual, topic-specific programmes in response to problems linked to the policies of the public authorities, such as sustainable development, social cohesion, and information society. The matters fall within the sole jurisdiction of the Federal Government or that of several authorities (federal and federate), in which event the programmes are the subject of co-operation agreements concluded between the Federal Government and the Communities and/or Regions. The priorities for the next years related to science for sustainable development (SSD) are: Transport & mobility; Agro-food; Health & Environment; Climate (incl. Antarctic research); Biodiversity (Antarctica & North Sea); Atmospheric processes; Terrestrial & marine ecosystems; Energy.

·        Basic research programmes under the "inter-university attraction poles" programme (IAP), with a co-operation agreement between the Federal Government and the Communities.

·        Support action for a consortium of four complementary collections of (micro)biological material, known as "Belgian co-ordinated collections of micro-organisms" (BCCM), which is the subject of a collaboration agreement with the Communities and the Regions.

·        The Department also handles the representation:

-                     of the Federal authority in specific committees of the European Research Programs of DG Research and related activities, in various working and consulting groups of intergovernmental organisations and in various working groups of international organisations such as the OECD;

-                     of the Federal Science Policy Office in various interministerial consulting groups & in thematic working groups of the FPS Public Health, Environment, Economic Affairs & Foreign Affairs & in working groups of the Federal Council for Sustainable Development (FCSD) and in the activities of the Interdepartmental Commission for Sustainable Development (ICSD) for the preparation of the Federal Sustainable Development Plan.