Understanding the complex east-west relationships in the European geoscience research landscape

We know that national research priorities across the European continent are markedly different in many situations. However, there is little understanding at the level of defining major collaborative research programme and professional associations, where, for instance, EGU has showed for several years an increase in disequilibrium for homogenizing priorities and leadership interest. The variable rate of success in west to east European funding leads to polarization rather than integration of science and research approach in an European landscape that becomes less homogeneous. Such unfortunate trends lead at the extreme to major collaborative disagreement, where the recent delay in setting the EU research budget by objections of Central European countries is a prime example. I examine here the state of the Western European often unconscious bias in research priorities across the continental and what can be done more effectively to avoid scientific nationalism and polarization of interest. A beneficial combination can be achieved only by knowing and understanding the national specificity of each other in both directions, east- and west-wards.