Technologists Look To Britain In Europe'S Great Eureka Project

EE 62 October 1987 TECHNOLOGISTS LOOK TO BRITAIN IN EUROPE"S GREAT EUREKA PROJECT Right up until 1985 "Eureka", as every schoolboy knew it, was the cry uttered at one of the most famous moments in scien- tific history. It was when the ancient Greek mathematician, Archimedes, arrived at an im- portant insight in the bathtub. The summer before last, how- ever, the word was prised out of hazily recollected scientific folklore, dusted off and ham- mered into shape as the gleam- ing new acronym encircling the newly formed European Re- search Coordinating Agency. The idea behind Eureka, re- putedly first voiced by Jacques Attail, international economic adviser to President Mitterrand of France, was engendered by growing fears that Europe was lagging behind the United States of America and Japan in the highly competitive world market for high technology. The French answer was to pro- pose a concerted civilian research effort involving collab- oration instead of competition between Europe...