Economic downturn no reason to stint on research spending

The eurozone's economic and banking crisis, which has seen governments slash public spending and driven citizens to the streets in protest, should not be a reason to stint on research funds, says the vice-president of corporate relations at Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone maker.

In an interview with EUobserver, Errki Ormala noted that when Finland had its big economic crisis in the 1990s, when its GDP plummeted by 13 percent, the government slashed public expenditure but consistently ra...