The Contribution of National Laboratories to the European Scientific Labour Market

Abstract

This article deals with the ways in which differing government policies in relation to national laboratories affect training, employment and culture within the research establishment and consequently the preparedness of respective countries to deal with future skills needs in private and public sector science. Helen Lawton Smith bases her discussion around a study which tested the hypothesis that political decisions in the UK over the past few years regarding the role of national laboratories have inhibited the country's capacity to meet the labour resource needs of the science base. The study included an empirical investigation of nine national laboratories in Belgium, France and the UK. In light of the findings from this comparative analysis, she suggests that moves towards the commercialization of UK national laboratories have had a number of adverse effects on the potential supply of skills to both public and private sectors.

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References

This research was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council under the research programme The European Context of UK Science Policy’, Research Grant No L323253006.

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