Looking to the future for mathematics in Europe
“From medical sciences to nanoscience, mathematics is everywhere even if it is not necessarily visible. I am sure that by making people aware of the role of maths, whether it is done by academics or industrialists, we can get much more out of it than we are currently. We will increase the leverage that mathematics has within society and innovation for industry, in Europe and also globally.”
Professor Magnus Fontes, Lund Institute of Technology and member of the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry Council.
Maths is the most versatile of the sciences – it provides a universal framework for innovation, supporting society in responding to the demands of a rapidly changing economic landscape. Yet the relationship between mathematics and industry could be stronger. In this context, the European Science Foundation Mathematics and Industry Forward Look is bringing together mathematicians from both academia and industry to explore ways of stimulating collaboration and establishing a shared vision for mathematics. It builds on the results of the report on "Mathematics and Industry" from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) by focussing on the specificities of the European context such as its strength, its fragmentation and diversity.
“An important thing that we have gained here is that the awareness of this Forward Look is now broad within the community, both amongst pure mathematicians and industrial. This is maybe the first time we’ve had such a broad communal awareness.” said Professor Fontes, who is chairing one of the key Forward Look working groups on training and careers within mathematics and industry.
Three working groups have been examining different aspects of the topic: training and careers, academia and industry and the opportunities and challenges going forward. The goal is to present recommendations for policy makers and also for how the mathematics community will go ahead. These have started to materialise and will include:
- Recommendations for forming stronger European connections in national educational systems
- Best practice case studies in both education in industrial mathematics, and in academia-industry collaborations in education
- Recommendations for establishing a stronger academia-industry interface, with national and European-wide strategies
- Report on challenges for SMEs and large companies and opportunities
The opportunities and challenges they identified were brought together at an alignment meeting in Strasbourg in November and will form the basis for discussions with policymakers at the consensus conference in Madrid, 26 – 27 April 2010. The conference will be an official event of the Spanish EU Presidency and will be aimed at obtaining a more focused attention to mathematics by European decision-makers and at gathering the views of the scientific community at large.
Professor Magnus Fontes continues: “Attacking the same situation from different angles is valuable. When you bring it all together you can see the common threads, but there have been some surprises. We discovered there are quite a lot of expert companies coming out of universities, usually consulting companies with a lot of knowledge in mathematics and normally started by people with PhDs in mathematics, computer science or a similar subject. While they represent a potential communication link between academia and industry, they are clearly driven by commercial needs and goals at the same time. So if you are within academia you need to find the right channel when looking to communicate with industry.”
ESF Forward Looks provide medium to long-term authoritative visions on science perspectives in broad areas of research bringing together ESF Member Organisations, other research organisations and the scientific community. They enable Europe’s scientific community, in interaction with policy makers, to develop medium- to long-term views and analyses of future research activities with the aim of defining research agendas at national and European level. It is expected that the Mathematics and Industry Forward Look will strengthen the mathematical knowledge base of a wide spectrum of research-intensive industries.
