Science and Innovation as Strategic Tools for Industrial and Economic Growth

The great, complex and rapid changes occurring in the former Soviet Union are making an impressive impact on the western world, especially Europe. Most of the change is generating positive effects and even more optimistic expectations, but one should not underestimate the difficulties of supporting them, making the results real and long-lasting. Many such difficulties are becoming manifest in the transferral of R&D and innovation. Furthermore, the impressive speed of innovative change in the global market, coupled with the enormous change achieved in the countries of the newly independent states, is accelerating the need for an operational solution capable of linking these countries with the western world, its rules and markets. Science and innovation have to be organised as strategic tools for industrial and economic growth, acting synergistically within the global scenario, possibly using networks in the western world, according to its rules and, even more important, its quality specifications.