Abstract
Most EEC countries have institutes concerned with research and development for the pulp and paper industry. These institutes are either independent establishments, such as PIRA in Great Britain or the Centre Technique in France, or they are part of larger institutions, such as the paper department of TNO in Holland or the Institute of Paper Technology of the Technical University of Darmstadt in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Budgets and personnel and hence the capacity of the research institutes vary considerably, characterised by a total staff of 12 persons minimum to 185 persons maximum. Accordingly, the budget varies between US$ 0.8 – 7 M per institute. The funding of the EEC research institutes is done in various ways, either by the government, or mixed, in the form of government and industrial contributions.
A few years ago the EEC commission in Brussels initiated a new funding incentive for certain projects.
Since the various research institutes already existed before the EEC was founded, it is not surprising that research strategies continue to have a strong national bias. The multi national character of research is still under-developed. The reason for this is, among other things, that the paper industries in some EEC countries regard international research with a certain suspicion. In addition, active communication and cooperation in research and development are impeded by the fact that much energy must be expended for raising funds . This is bound to lead to pronounced formalisation and to tactical biases in those bodies which are concerned with research and its contents.
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