Education and Science, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Innovations, Technology

In the Commission’s proposal for the multi-annual financial framework for the years 2014-2020, a future EU research and innovation funding program, so-called Horizon-2020 was included. The informal Council’s meeting follows the European Research Area (ERA) ministerial conference in July, which in turn follows the agreement by the Heads of State in February 2011 aimed to achieve the European Research Area by 2014.

There are three issues at the core of the ERA’s development: public R&D expenditure by the member states (MS) and the EU to stimulate private investment; the mobility and careers of researchers in Europe, and university reform.

See: SPEECH/11/537, "A broader range of participants in EU Research and Innovation programs" by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science (Sopot, Poland, 21 July 2011).

Expenditures to R&D

The Polish Council’s Presidency has been stepping up and setting an R&D intensity target of 1,7 per cent for  public R&D expenditure by 2020. This corresponds both to the needs and ambition of all MS. However, to achieve it, a rapid and sustained investment will be needed in the next decade with a clear prioritisation of the research and innovation budget by the MS’ governments. This responds to the overall recommendation of the Commission in its Communication on Country Specific Recommendations of 7 June 2011, which provides an overall call to prioritise investment in research and innovation in the public budget.

The emergency task for the European Union, the Commissioner M. Geoghegan-Quinn underlined was based on decisions for perspective research and innovation strategy. For example, the issue of "intellectual capital" should indeed help MS to identify areas where the EU could do better, and to boost growth and prosperity across the continent.

Horizon-2020 program

When the EU's Heads of State and Government discussed innovation at the European Council on 4 February 2011, they called upon the Commission to bring together all EU research and innovation funding under a Common Strategic Framework to make it both more effective and impactful and easier to access for participants. Following an open competition, the European public voted to name the new Program "Horizon 2020".

More than 1300 responses to the online questionnaire on the Green Paper on Horizon 2020 were received. In addition, stakeholders sent in more than 750 consolidated position papers. This was an unprecedented consultation in terms of the strong engagement from the various stakeholders.

Overall, there is strong support for the concept of the Common Strategic Framework and its objectives of bringing research and innovation closer together and providing support across the full innovation cycle. One of the two winners of the competition was from Poland - Mrs. Beata Zygnier who won a trip to the European Innovation Convention that will be held in Brussels at the end of 2011.  

Innovation policy: three priorities

Simplification is a key priority for all stakeholders and there are recurring calls to make funding opportunities less prescriptive and more open. Respondents also stressed the need to become more flexible in project implementation and to make better use of bottom-up instruments, also in areas of the program which are driven by clear policy objectives.

In terms of generating more innovation, the main message is that the EU should support all stages in the innovation chain, with a clear wish to strengthen support for activities closer to the market, e.g. demonstration, piloting or market replication.

At the same time, respondents were very clear on the need to maintain the best of what we have already. This concerns in particular: collaborative research, the European Research Council and the Marie Curie actions. Also, the Risk Sharing Finance Facility and the SME support actions of the Competitiveness and Innovation (CIP) program are frequently mentioned as success stories.

The Horizon 2020 will be structured around three distinct, but mutually reinforcing blocks, in line with Europe 2020 priorities.

The first block, “Excellence in the science base”, will strengthen the EU's world-class excellence in science, through actions supporting frontier research (European Research Council), future and emerging technologies (FET), Marie Curie actions and priority research infrastructures.

The second block, “Tackling societal challenges”, will respond directly to challenges identified in EU-2020 Strategy. It will support activities across the entire spectrum from research to market. Its focus will be on the challenges of: health, demographic change and well-being; food security and the bio-based economy; secure, clean and efficient energy; smart, green and integrated transport; supply of raw materials; resource efficiency and climate action; and inclusive, innovative and secure societies. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) will contribute to addressing these challenges through its Knowledge and Innovation Communities.

The third block, “Creating industrial leadership and competitive frameworks”, will support business research and innovation. Actions will cover: increasing investment in enabling and industrial technologies, facilitating access to risk finance, and providing EU wide support for innovation in SMEs with a high growth potential.

Implementation will be simplified and standardised, with simplification covering both funding schemes and rules. Key aspects will include: a rationalised set of funding schemes, a single set of rules, shorter time-to-grant periods, and significant outsourcing of operational activities.

Horizon 2020 will come into effect in the next EU Budget period which will start in 2014. The Commission adopted its proposals for the next EU Budget on 29 June, including for research and innovation. Within the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) proposal, the Commission is proposing a 46% increase in the budget for research and innovation compared with provisions made under the current MFF.

With this proposal, the Commission is clearly showing its strong commitment to delivering on the ambitions of Europe 2020 and the Innovation Union.

The aim of Horizon 2020 is to make EU research and innovation funding both more efficient and more effective for participants.

Horizon 2020 will reach out to a broader range of participants across all MS, including small and medium enterprises. Based on these key principles, the Commission will continue to develop its proposals, which will be presented by the end of this year.

The new program must also be in harmony with other EU policies and programs; in particular, the Commission will ensure that synergies with EU Cohesion Policy and the Structural Funds are fully exploited.

Funding for R&D

This leads to the important question of participation rates in the EU funding program. The Commission fully understands the MS’ concern in ensuring that the EU programs make the best use of all potential research and innovation resources, and getting the best possible outcomes. These values are at the heart of the ERA principles.

It is natural and even expected that national participation rates will differ. The primary indicator is towards “funding excellence”, which will be followed in Horizon 2020. And while it is obvious that excellence can be found in all MS, it is also obvious that excellence cannot be equally distributed at any one time.

As to analysing participation rates, the Commission considers EU financial contributions from the point of view of numbers of organisations involved at national or regional level and through proper understanding of "high" and "low" rate of participation.

It was clear that success in the Union’s FP-7 program was considerably different across the member states, both in terms of participation success rate and contribution. There is also a strong correlation to the relative size of the R&D workforce and R&D investment in a separate EU state as compared to the overall EU-27. In short, the higher is the overall contribution to EU-27 R&D spending, the higher are the returns from the EU’s Framework program.

The Commission underlined that in the “old EU-12” there were certain participation patterns that deserved closer attention: notably the low number of project coordinators from EU12 countries, or the level of EU contribution per participant.

Some of these differences are due to a learning effect. Following the patterns of earlier EU enlargements, the Commission expects trends towards higher participation rates for the countries which have recently joined the Framework Program.

National support networks play an important role in helping participants to access networks and learn how to manage small and large collaborative research projects, especially the less experienced applicants.

There are also measures to focus over the longer-term, including what might be done through Horizon 2020. The Commission highlighted, in particular, the following:

= National R&D investments towards the 3% target are vital. Such investment can ensure a solid base of well-trained scientists, with access to well-equipped labs and infrastructure, and with the capacity to respond successfully to calls for proposals at the European level. So-to-say, to succeed in the European Champions League one needs a strong national league!

= The development of national research strategies should be encouraged, so that countries are in a better position to both shape and exploit the benefits of the Framework Program;

= Support should be provided for twinning arrangements between research actors to share knowledge and boost visibility;

= Particular emphasis should be put on encouraging young research teams; and,

= Particular support for researchers who have spent time working outside the EU, to return to their home countries in Europe.

= Last but not least, a strong synergies between Horizon 2020 and the Structural Funds must be ensured.

In order to identify further opportunities for such synergies, the Commission established a Synergies Expert Group that began work in October 2010.

CORDIS website

Their main recommendations were presented to the recent WIRE 2 conference in Debrecen and have now been published on the Commission's CORDIS website. The report contains ambitious, but at the same time practical, actions that can be taken to ensure that the highest possible added value is obtained from all sources of funding in support of research and innovation.

Among its conclusions, the report makes a clear differentiation between the objectives and modes of intervention of Horizon 2020 and the cohesion policy funds in order to ensure complementarities and synergies.

The EU Structural Funds should be deployed to their full extent with large-scale funding to support capacity-building in the regions through pre-allocated budgetary envelopes.

These efforts should include dedicated actions aimed at modernising universities, purchasing scientific equipment, engaging in local technology transfer, supporting start-ups and spin-offs and fostering local interaction between industry and academia.

These actions should be instrumental in developing a pathway to excellence, leading these regions to fully participate in Horizon 2020, which will continue to allocate its funds on the basis of scientific excellence regardless of geographical location. During the Commissioner’s recent visits to the three Baltic States, she witnessed how smart investment in scientific equipment and infrastructures had helped attract excellent researchers back into the country.

A key policy innovation could be seen in a drive for excellence through “the smart specialisation strategies” in the member states and EU regions as a key condition for the successful implementation of research and innovation funding under the next round of Structural Funds.

The launch of the promised Smart Specialisation Platform on 23 June 2011 at the Regions for Economic Change conference provides the regions with an important source of support in the development of their smart specialisation strategies.

Final steps

The Commission and the member states are bound to work together on the perspective steps. Indeed, the Council Conclusions of last May called on the Commission to report back by the end of the year, in consultation with the MS.

The Commission is going to invite the member states’ representatives for a high-level workshop on 9 September 2011 by the DG for Research and Innovation. The Commission will present the results of the new analyses alongside the member states’ own observations and findings. Then, the DG will report back on the results at the formal Council at the end of September. In this way the Commission will make sure that any relevant measures are duly incorporated in the proposals for Horizon 2020.