"The Directorate General’s mission is evolving as work on the European Research Area (ERA) continues. It can be summarised as follows:

• to develop the European Union’s policy in the field of research and technological development and thereby contribute to the international competitiveness of European industry;
• to coordinate European research activities with those carried out at the level of the Member States;
• to support the Union’s policies in other fields such as environment, health, energy, regional development etc;
• *to promote a better understanding of the role of science in modern societies and stimulate a public debate about research-related issues at European level."

Source: DG Research Website, as accessed in March 2014.

Change of name for DG Research in January 2011

As of 1 January 2011, the EC's DG Research officially became DG for Research and Innovation.  The change in the name of DG Research to DG Research and Innovation reflects the increased  emphasis that the EU institutions, Member States and Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn, have all  placed on innovation. When Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn took up post she became the  Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science.
It also takes into account recent policy developments such as the introduction of the Innovation  Union flagship initiative, which has been developed to act as the EU’s main strategy for research  and innovation. DG Research and Innovation remains abbreviated on EC websites to ‘RTD’  (Research and Technological Development), which is what it has always been known.

Further information
The website of DG Research and Innovation is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm
The Commissioner’s website is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/geoghegan-quinn/index_en.htm