Environmental Toxicology, Economics and Institutions [antikvár]

l.THE ORIGINS AND AIMS OF THE EUROPEAN SCIENCE FOUNDATION JOINT PROJECT IN ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY, ECONOMICS AND INSTITUTIONS. D. MICHAEL PUGH Department of Small Animal Clinical Studies, Veterinary Faculty, University College Dublin, IRELAND. L The European Science Foundation and Toxicology The European Science Foundation (ESF) is an association of 55 member research councils, academies and institutions devoted to basic scientific research in 20 countries [1]. With headquarters in Strasbourg, it was founded in 1974 and sprang from a decision taken at a meeting of the West European Research Councils, Aarhuus, 1972. An intention then, and now, was to build "a litde bit of Europe through the development of a coherent community of science and scholarship" [2], To achieve this the ESF "brings European scientists together to work on topics of common concern, to co-ordinate the use of expensive facilities, and to discuss and define new endeavours that will benefit from a co-operative approach". That science which is "sponsored by ESF includes basic research in the natural sciences, the medical and biosciences, the humanities and the social sciences". Taking a broader view of Europe than that defined by certain well-known political and military organisations, the ESF has lived up to its claim to "link the scholarship and research supported by its members and add value by co-operation across national frontiers" [1], The inter-disciplinary work reported in this volume well exemplifies this claim in having found Scandinavian economists to assist with a problem characterised by Italian biologists as part of a larger programme whose long-term goal is to provide to those who regulate for chemical safety world-wide an extended and improved database for future decision-taking. The regulatory interest arose with the EC Commission and has been included in the study with inputs from the Netherlands and the UK. The recent events in the former Eastern Bloc Countries and the revelation of the extent of environmental degradation in those territories make this study into drinking water contamination especially timely. They underline too the value of the long-standing interaction enjoyed by the ESF with its Eastern members and through its support of study visits to Western countries. In addition to its fellowship programmes, the "connecting abilities" of the ESF are expressed via the establishment of networks of researchers, now 25, and the organising of ad hoc groups or workshops. The areas chosen for research co-ordination are specified in programmes, or "additional activities" and are adopted via a committee process culminaung in the annual November meeting of the General Assembly of the ESF. L. Bergman and DM. Pugh (eds.), Environmental Toxicology, Economics and Institutions, 1-14. © 1994 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.