Belspo

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The Federal Public Planning Service Science Policy, better known as Belspo, groups the federal administrative services in charge of science policy. Their main tasks are Belgian participation in international research programmes and institutions, the implementation of inter-federal research programmes and the supervision of federal scientific institutions.

2002-	Federal Public Planning Service Science Policy
1993-2002	Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs
1968-1993	Science Policy Office
1959-1968	National Council for Science Policy (NCSP)

History

Origins

The Belgian science policy was born out of the work of the National Science Commission (1957-1959). This commission, which brought together the heads of the Kingdom's main scientific institutions, recommended a vast refinancing of science, as well as the creation of a National Council for Higher Education and Research to ensure better coordination in the use of these new funds. The name 'National Science Policy Council' was however preferred by the Eyskens government. The Prime Minister defined this new notion of 'Science Policy' as follows: "A set of general directives aimed at developing scientific activities and placing them at the service not only of the intellectual and moral development of the population, but also of the protection of its health and its economic prosperity".

The National Science Policy Council, composed of representatives of scientific institutions, universities and the economic and social world, was responsible for drawing up this science policy. It was assisted by a Secretariat with study departments. This Secretariat was entrusted successively to André Molitor (1959-1961) and then to Jacques Spaey (1961-1971). Molitor and Spaey were French-speaking Christian Democrat intellectuals, seasoned Catholic civil servants, and the main promoters of a more dirigiste and utilitarian conception of Science Policy, opposed to the reign of what Molitor called the 'science lobby'.

| Read more about the 'conquest of Science Policy' by these senior Christian Democrat officials in this story..

Once this inventory had been completed and presented to the political world, the Secretariat was able to move on to a more active phase of Science Policy: making projections (especially regarding the need for qualified personnel), setting objectives in coordination with the planning departments, and putting in place the budgetary, regulatory and institutional conditions necessary to achieve these objectives. This 'programmatic' (a euphemism for 'planning', a word that frightened scientists) and authoritarian approach contributed to the growing tensions between the Council and its Secretariat.

The birth of the Science Policy Office

In 1968, the research departments of the Secretariat of the National Council for Science Policy were detached from the Council and transformed into administrations of the newly created Ministry of Science Policy. Jacques Spaey became its Secretary General. This decision followed both the recommendations of UNESCO (1965), which advocated the adoption of the French model, and the conflicts between the Secretariat and the CNPS. The study services were established as a State Administration then renamed 'Science Policy Office'.

The tasks of this SPO were redefined in 1968, and further specified in the Royal Decree of 4 February 1977:

• Inventory of Belgium's scientific potential, every two years
• Technical support for policy decisions on higher education and research
• Space policy and aeronautical research and development (two highly strategic sectors)
• Budget preparation, i.e. mainly the coordination between the budgets of the different ministries contributing to higher education. To compensate for the lack of precision of traditional budgets in this area, an 'organic budget' model was established in 1969 by the SPO.
• The Secretariat of the Interministerial Commission for Scientific Policy (from 1969)
• The interface with international research programmes and institutions, particularly the European framework programmes defined by the European Commission. The SPO thus participated in the work that led to the creation of the European Space Agency; or in the European ESPRIT programme (European Strategic Programme for R&D in Information Technologies)
• Coordination and execution of national programmes in collaboration with researchers

National Research Programmes

National research programmes are the major innovation introduced by the birth of science policy in Belgium. They constituted large 'public commissions', the objectives of which were determined by the government. The research centres affiliated with them received substantial public subsidies and worked under the supervision of the SPO. However, researchers were involved in the direction and development of these programmes.

These programmes were the following:

1. Environment, air and water quality (1972-1976)
2. Informatics (1971-1981), in particular regional informatics (in collaboration with the Walloon and Flemish regions, as well as with Brussels officials from 1976)
3. Social sciences (1975-1982), following criticism from the CNPS that these were not sufficiently developed
4. Energy (1975-1987)
5. National programme on scientific and technical information and documentation
6. Waste and 'secondary' raw materials (1976-1979)

Alongside these large-scale programmes were 'concerted research action programmes', initially annual (until 1976), then multiannual, in fields that were often directly useful to the Belgian economy: microelectronics, optics, robotics, catalysis, chemical engineering, new materials, biotechnology, oceanography, etc. These themes reflected the economic and social concerns of Belgium in the 1970s and 1980s, which was hit by the fossil fuel crisis and deindustrialisation. The abundance of resources injected under the direct supervision of the state contrasts with the stagnation, or even the decline, in the funding allocated to universities and fundamental research at the same time.

Science Policy in Federalisation

During the 1980s, an increasing number of administrative and financial responsibilities for research were transferred to the regions and communities (universities, FNRS-NFWO, IRSIA, IISN, FRSM) in the course of state reforms. In 1993, the SPO was transformed into the Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs (OSTC) and placed under the supervision of the Prime Minister's Chancellery:

• Federal scientific research: nuclear policy, part of agricultural policy, development cooperation, telecommunications
• Computer networks for the exchange of scientific information (Belnet)
• Space research, in the framework of international research projects
• The scientific and cultural institutions that were formerly dependent on the state, whether they were bodies under the former Ministries of National Education (Royal Library, General Archives of the Kingdom, Royal Museums of Art and History, Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Royal Institute of Artistic Heritage, Royal Institute of Natural Sciences, Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Observatory of Uccle, Royal Meteorological Institute (RMI), Institute of Space Aeronomy, Biermans-Lapôtre Foundation, Academia Belgica (Belgian participation in the College of Europe in Bruges and the European University in Florence), the Ministry of Justice (National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology), the Ministry of Defence (Royal Museum of the Army and Military History), the Ministry of Public Health (Scientific Institute of Public Health) and the Ministry of Agriculture (Agronomic Research Centres of Ghent and Gembloux, Centre for Agricultural Economics, National Botanical Garden of Meise, Centre for Veterinary and Agrochemical Studies and Research)
• The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie/De Munt, the Palace of Fine Arts, the National Orchestra, the National Congressional Service

The OSTCs also took over the secretariat of the Federal Science Policy Council, the Inter-ministerial Science Policy Conference and the Inter-ministerial Commissions for International and Inter-federal Cooperation. Coordination between the different levels of government was now necessary to carry out national activities, such as participation in international research programmes, the inventory of the country's "scientific potential" or national research programmes.

Today

In 2002, the Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs was transformed into the Federal Public Planning Service Science Policy, better known as Belspo. Its mission has not changed: to execute research missions and programmes; to support the political decision and the work of other ministerial departments; to administer the Federal Scientific Establishments; to coordinate the Interuniversity Attraction Poles and the Technological Attraction Poles; to act as an interface with international research programmes and institutions (which absorbs almost half of the federal budget for Science Policy), in particular with the European Space Agency and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory; to valorise the Belgian heritage under their supervision.

Successive presidents

• Jacques Wautrequin (1993-1998)
• Eric Beka (1998-2003)
• Philippe Mettens (2003-2015)

Website

The website of Belspo can be found here.

Bibliography

• Overview of the history of BELSPO on their website
• Spaey, J. (dir.) et al., Le développement par la science. Essai sur l’apparition et l’organisation de la politique scientifique des États, Paris, UNESCO, 1969.
• Conseil National de la Politique Scientifique, Rapport d’activité (1972-1979), Bruxelles, 1980.
• Molitor, A., Servir l’État, UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1982.
• Halleux, R., Xhayet, G., La liberté de chercher. Histoire du Fonds national belge de la recherche scientifique, Liège, Éditions de l’Université de Liège, 2007.
• Bertrams, K. et al., Pour une histoire de la politique scientifique en Europe (XIX^e-XX^e siècles) : actes du colloque des 22 et 23 avril 2005 au Palais des Académies, Bruxelles, Académie royale des Sciences, 2007.
• Pirot, P., « La ‘Commission nationale des sciences’ et l’émergence d’un concept de politique scientifique en Belgique » in Malpangotto, M., Jullien, V., Nicolaidis, E., L’homme au risque de l’infini. Mélanges d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences offerts à Michel Blay, Bruxelles, Brepols, 2013. (Coll. « De Diversis Artibus », t. 93).
• Halleux, R. et al., Tant qu’il y aura des chercheurs, Liège, Luc Pire, 2015.