Perspectives Towards a European Science System

Governments around the world are currently making great efforts to develop modern and internationally competitive science systems. In this respect, creating a European Research Area has become a widely acknowledged goal within the higher realms of politics; that is among a wide range of European and national and regional actors. While decision makers are not getting tired of emphasizing that Europe would soon become the “most world’s competitive knowledge-based economy”, spearheaded by an “excellence-based science system”, research as to how a European science system – if existing at all – corresponds to national science systems and transnational interactions is still in the fledging states. Therefore, the aim of this workshop is to identify and discuss central research questions, theoretical concepts and methods for exploring the future of (a) European science system(s).