European Union and US officials met in Washington, DC, on February 12 to discuss ways to enhance science, technology, and innovation cooperation. Both sides are committed to the critical role science, technology, and innovation can play in developing the knowledge and technologies that can foster economic growth, create jobs, and help solve shared challenges, such as in health, climate change, and food security.

Groups led by the Director-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, Robert-Jan Smits, and Kerri-Ann Jones, US Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, explored how to advance cooperation in various areas, including materials science. In this field, the two sides discussed already successful work between the European Union, the United States, and Japan in the area of critical raw materials research, and agreed to explore possibilities for collaboration opened up by new US initiatives on advanced materials, particularly in the field of computational modeling.