EU Parliament report on future research funding
By Ingemar Pongratz
The European Parliament has recently produced EU Parliament report on future research funding through the Spanish MEP Soledad Cabezón Ruiz. The draft report includes Horizon 2020 implementation views. In addition, her report includes several interesting recommendations regarding the future FP9 framework programme.
The draft report highlights the current challenges facing Europe today. These include populistic trends, migration, climate change etc and it is interesting to note the report highlights the role that R&D plays as part of the solution to these problems. The report points out that there is currently a funding deficit in Europe for research today where only a few member states reach the goal of allocating 3% of their GDP to fund research and innovation. Furthermore, the report highlights the close connection between the European Research programmes and societal policy and policy development in several areas. These areas include for example technology development in the health are, improved gender equality in research, and the ability of the European food sector to remain competitive.
Interestingly the report highlights several areas where European research has to keep attention. One important focus is to ensure that funding is provided to fund education. The reports highlights that research should be closely associated with pre-university education, even at early stages. The report also points out that the future research will require creative students and that these students should be developed early, already at the educational stage. Therefore, the report suggest that the term Education should be also included into the ERα concept and goals.
A new discussion is regarding the role of large industrial partners in the future framework programme. The report highlights that public funding should support large enterprises, but this should be limited to large infrastructure projects. In fact, the report argues that large enterprises would benefit more through new ways of collaboration with innovation communities.
The report points some of the problems that Horizon 2020 has encountered, such as poor success rate, problems with the evaluation process and highlights that over 20 European bodies are involved in Horizon 2020.
Regarding the future Framework Programme FP9, the report points out a few interesting aspects. In particular, the report suggests that the Commission plans to include military project should be kept separated from civilian projects. The report also supports the current structure of Horizon 2020 and suggests that the pillars are kept also in FP9.
The report is very interesting, and there are already several articles from different stakeholders who either support and oppose some of the findings.
Fenix Scientific AB / Pongratz Consulting will monitor this area and provide more information in the future. If you would like to discuss this or if you need help with your proposal for Horizon 2020, please do not hesitate to contact us, either through the Online Contact form or by email to:
Ingemar.Pongratz (a) pongratzconsultign.com
The Royal Garden by Ingemar Pongratz