The European Commission announced yesterday that they will invest 6.4 billion Euros (currently around 8.2 billion US Dollars) in research and development for 2011 (H/T The Scientist). This money comes from the Seventh Framework Programme, the periodic, overlapping, master plan for scientific research and development for the European Union. It represents a 12 percent increase over the 2010 amount, and continues a series of planned increases that runs counter to the pending cuts in research for several European countries. It does not address the anticipated research cuts needed to address the ballooning costs of the ITER fusion reactor.
The Framework Programme is, to my mind, unique in not just its geographic scope, but also in the diversity of different fields of fundamental and translational research it supports. Peruse the calls page to get a better idea of this scope. Fifty-one new calls were released today in connection with the announcement.
I do not have an answer for my question in the title. I suspect that the European spending will be insufficient even if individual nations hold the line on their own science funding. Because even those nations are looking at significant cuts to their universities, which affect both the training of the next generation of researchers and a certain amount of research. At best the funding boosts and cuts will be a wash, but the future doesn’t look like the best. What might happen is a greater shift in attention to European Union level research compared to country level research. But if the interests of British science and technology government officials – capturing more of the benefits of their research at home – are not unique to the U.K., there may be some increased tension to come.
Pasco Phronesis 
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Hi David! Very interesting to read your comment about possible tensions and keeping the benefits of research at home (as per UK sci & tech officials). I’m inclined to agree with you but I am curious as to what you make of the recent French government investment of 1 million euros in a lab situated at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec. Of course, there’s a long way between making an announcement and actually paying out the money. (Btw, thanks for the shoutout a while back when you celebrated your anniversary.)
Maryse,
Hello. I’ll have to look into the French investment before I say anything resembling informed speculation. I would ask you, however, about the extent of French-Quebec relations. Could this investment be as much about maintaining cultural connections as anything else? France has taken steps to preserve and support its culture that distinguish it from similar efforts in other countries.