EREA welcomed the opportunity offered by the European Commission through the recently closed Public consultation on the past, present and future of the European Research & Innovation Framework programmes 2014-2027 to present its views on the above mentioned European Research & Innovation Framework programmes.
With this Public Consultation EREA takes the opportunity to also present a more elaborated EREA position on the past, present & future of the European Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation 2014-2027 and to call for increased investment in R&I for a better future, where success depends more and more on the generation and conversion of knowledge into innovations.
In the Position Paper, EREA highlighted the following key messages:
| · It is of utmost importance that the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation funds and supports the entire R&I chain, from basic research, application-oriented research, technology demonstration and validation up to innovation, to ensure European leadership and European competitiveness in the world
· Increasing R&I investment is crucial for Europe’s future at a time of high global competitiveness, when success increasingly depends on the generation and conversion of knowledge into innovation. · Collaborative research and partnerships, in particular between industry, research organisations and universities, are key instruments to ensure a rapid transfer of knowledge to applications and thus innovation. This is the main added value of EU-wide cooperation. · EREA emphasizes the need to consider and support Technology Infrastructures (TIs) in an appropriate way – for any technological breakthrough, TIs are key to prove an idea, test it, validate the technology and highlight its effectiveness and impact (instrumental for scaling up). Europe needs a landscape of large-scale, high-quality TIs covering the entire TRL ladder as well as a network of smaller facilities serving local innovative ecosystems. EREA calls for high-level European support actions for aviation Technology Infrastructures in the second part of Horizon Europe and the following Framework Programmes. · There are dedicated tools at the EU level to fund the implementation of Missions, e.g., European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), Digital Europe and others, this being the reason why EREA strongly discourages the use of a dedicated R&I programme budget for this purpose. · EREA is in favour of a fair balance between joint research projects and individual funding measures (ERC; EIC) and emphasizes once again the immense added value of cross-border cooperation and collaboration between researchers from industry, research organizations and universities in joint European projects. · EREA welcomes any kind of simplification effort if researchers (and their institutions) can really benefit from it. In the “Lump Sum” approach, shifting the administrative burden from the accounting phase (during and after the lifetime of the project) to the project preparation phase goes against the objective of simplification, could even lead to less European cooperation within an EU project and due to higher uncertainties, the measure is even counterproductive. · EREA welcomes any initiative by the European Commission to better align the programming and funding rules of the different EU funds to allow for greater coherence and synergies. |
You can read all the details in the complete EREA position on the past, present & future of the European Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation 2014-2027.