One possible vision for marine stations in the 21st century
EMBRC is supposed to federate marine stations at the European level. But hegemonic language makes this group sound like they will be taking charge of all research in Europe over the next 18 months. Their website gives the impression that people in marine stations never worked with each other, never published together, never even picked up the telephone or sent an email ...
“Fragmentation has made it difficult to exploit this potential to its fullest – for example research services that operate in isolation, barriers (practical and cultural) between academic and commercial R&D, and a lack of harmony in regional innovation policies. EMBRIC seeks to overcome these barriers by linking biological and social science research infrastructures throughout Europe, and by joining up aligned efforts in science, industry and regions.”
Does anyone really believe this stuff? How could this organization pretend to lead marine sciences with such a narrow view? This couldn’t be a more false vision of how marine stations have operated over the last two centuries ... nor their contributions to science.
