2.05 Improved conditions for research The pharmaceutical industry is one of Denmark’s areas of strength, and it makes a considerable contribution of growth to our society. Its contribution to society is the result of massive investment in R&D. It is on such investment that innovation, knowledge and growth – the very lifeblood of Denmark in a globalised future – depend.   However, the private sector pharmaceutical companies cannot meet this challenge alone. It is through the interplay of public and private research that results in health science are achieved. Necessary basic research must be conducted before pharmaceutical companies can develop new treatments.   Denmark is lagging considerably behind the rest of Europe and the US in its level of public investment in research. Other things being equal, over time this would erode Denmark’s ability to maintain its leading position in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological sphere. There is therefore a need for a considerable boost to public basic research in the area of health science.   A continued prioritised drive and more funds are needed to retain and improve the competitive position that Denmark still has. The whole foundation for a continued strong Danish position in pharmaceutical and biotechnological innovation is precisely public investment in education and research.   Lif believes:  that more public funds should be allocated to research so that Denmark will achieve the Barcelona target of 1 per cent of GDP for public research, that basic research in health science in Denmark should be strengthened.  Investment in basic research should be long term and should give space to the logic of the research itself so that it will not be limited by a short-sighted focus on commercialisation, that public investment should be strategically prioritised to target and support research that is already of high quality and represents positions of research strength, that allocation of public research funds should prioritise research environments engaging in targeted collaboration on extending our knowledge of why diseases arise and how to prevent and treat them, that resources will be allocated, with more funds generally being made available per research project, and projects being allowed to run for longer periods.