EU nations fight for high-tech institute

A beauty contest for brains starts this week in Brussels as countries vie to house a new high-tech project.

Poland, Spain, Hungary and an Austrian-Slovak alliance are lobbying to be the home of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

The EIT headquarters will employ only 60 people, but the tussle over its location underlines the political prestige some countries attach to hosting an European Union agency. The chosen area will hope to gain fresh investment as well as boost its high-tech credentials.

Wroclaw in Poland, Sant Cugat del Vallès near Barcelona, Budapest, and a joint application by Vienna and nearby Bratislava have been shortlisted. With EU members to decide at the end of May, candidates are determined to underline their record of innovation and academic success.

The Austro-Slovak pitch says that Vienna has the most students in Europe. Dusan Caplovic, the Slovak deputy prime minister, is visiting Brussels this week to press the case for the bid.

Budapest's glossy application highlights how Hungarians were behind inventions such as the Rubik cube and ballpoint pen, and that Hungary has the highest Nobel prize laureates per capita.

Sant Cugat del Vallès bills itself as a "place where tradition meets innovation and quality of life", while Wroclaw boasts that it is home to 9,000 teachers.

No frontrunner has yet emerged, diplomats say.

A decision on the location would clear an important hurdle to establishing the EIT, a pet project of José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president.

He initially saw the EIT as Europe's answer to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, hoping that it would turn more high-tech discoveries into money-spinning products and help Europe close the innovation gap with rivals such as the US and Japan.

However, faced with concern from some member states, Mr Barroso watered down plans for a big campus institution and opted for a small network system. The first research topic could be fighting climate change.

The EIT will receive a total of €308.7m ($480.6m, £244m) in EU funding until 2013, with the rest of the €2.4bn budget due to come from the private sector.

The EU agreed in 2003 that newer- mostly ex-communist - member states should be given priority when locating new agencies.

Most recently, Vilnius in Lithuania won the gender equality institute, while Warsaw became home to the border management agency. Some officials speculate that this might dash Poland's chance of the EIT. * The European Commission and the pharmaceutical industry will today unveil a pioneering €2bn partnership to fight the slipping global role played by Europe in medical research. The cash will be offered to academic researchers and small businesses, Andrew Jack writes.