Beyond Horizon: Science and competitiveness brief

A Finnish study has found that the impact of public innovation support grows gradually and peaks around five to eight years after companies first receive support.  

The results are based on an analysis of 22 years of public innovation grants in Finland, and show that receiving research and development support makes companies more likely to commercialise meaningful, industry-recognised innovations. But it does take time. 

"Significant innovations often require years of development before reaching the market. Our findings show that funding continuity can be fruitful, but evaluation frameworks must allow for sufficiently long time horizons. The long development cycles should be reflected in policy instruments and evaluation practices,” said assistant professor Robert van der Have from the University of Oulu. 

Find the study here. 

The European Research Council has awarded 182 proof of concept grants to enable the researchers it supports to explore the commercial and societal potential of their work.  

This is a routine funding round, worth €27.3 million, that awards each selected grantee a €150,000 top-up grant to move towards commercialising their ERC project results.  

Of the awardees, 54% work on physical sciences and engineering projects, 37% life sciences and 8% social sciences and humanities. 

The next funding round for proof of concept grants is open until September 17. 

More about the grants here. 

The Horizon Europe programme will fund the first €3.4 million European research network on contemporary antisemitism and Jewish life.  

The project will map and analyse the research landscape, foster collaboration and knowledge sharing, develop methodologies and research tools, as well as promote research translation to policy and public engagement. 

The project is part of the EU strategy on combatting antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, adopted in 2021. It is coordinated by the European University Institute, in partnership with the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in the UK. 

Read more about the project here. 

The European Council have signed off €800 million of research funding for steel, and to help regions hit by the transition away from coal. The funding should amount to up to €120 million a year, and run until 2034. 

The support will “continue to strengthen two critical sectors that are central to the EU’s industrial transformation,” said Nicodemos Damianou, Cyprus’s deputy minister of research, in a statement. 

“While contributing to the green transition it will strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of these industries that are essential for Europe’s resilience, economic strength, and strategic autonomy.” 

A group of European research umbrella bodies have published an open letter warning against the use of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the EU’s doctoral and postdoctoral training grants, to respond to immediate needs for training. 

Currently, MSCA grant areas are suggested by scientists themselves. But last year, fears emerged that European Commission could direct priorities from above to hit policy goals, for example in artificial intelligence. 

Now, research groups across Europe have reiterated that MSCA calls should be determined by academics, not officials. 

“MSCA should not be used to address short-term labour market needs,” the statement says. “Its unique value lies in supporting excellent researchers and in strengthening Europe’s long-term research capacity on the basis of an open, bottom-up, and research-field agnostic approach that fosters scientific excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and unexpected breakthroughs.”

The European Innovation Council (EIC) Board is calling on more support to bring promising technologies to market, to strengthen Europe’s energy security in response to recent geopolitical shocks. 

“The EIC Board considers that the pipeline of promising European deep tech innovations can deliver both short-term relief, medium-term transition and long-term resilience,” it says in a statement published on June 24. 

It points to deep-tech solutions from clean energy generation and storage to grids, advanced materials and other enabling technologies. 

Among its recommendations are clearer bridges between EU instruments, including the EIC, the new Scaleup Europe Fund, the Innovation Fund, and national and regional programmes, so that successful projects have easier access to follow-on funding. 

It also calls for regulatory simplification, accelerated planning and permitting, more dialogue with investors and measures to stimulate demand.

German and UK universities are urging EU leaders to keep Horizon Europe open to trusted partners as negotiations continue over the shape of the programme post-2027. 

“Europe does not succeed by restricting scientific cooperation, but by treating associated countries as equals and keeping thematic exclusions to a minimum,” Russell Group chair Chris Day and German U15 chair Michael Hoch wrote in a joint article published in German newspaper Die Zeit. 

Germany and the UK should also deliver on the Kensington Treaty signed last year by expanding agreements between research funding agencies, establishing joint scholarships and increasing academic mobility, they said. 

The call came on the final day of the International Science & Policy Symposium in Hannover, organised by the German U15 in cooperation with the Russell Group and the Volkswagen Foundation. 

Read more here.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has welcomed the European Parliament’s decision to approve a new legal framework for plants produced using new breeding techniques. 

The legislation, which was adopted by MEPs on June 17 following approval by EU member states in April, simplifies rules for so-called NGT-1 plants that could also have been produced using conventional breeding methods. These plants will no longer have to comply with the strict authorisation requirements of the current rules on genetically modified organisms. 

“From mid-2028, when the regulation comes into force, researchers will now be able to conduct field trials much more easily, for example to improve plants’ resilience to climate change and resistance to pests,” said DFG president Katja Becker. 

“This will mean that new breeding techniques can become one of the tools for securing stable and increasing yields while reducing the use of pesticides.” 

More details here.

he European Commission has appointed Martin Špolc as director for prosperity at its directorate-general for research and innovation (DG RTD). 

The Czech national, who currently heads the unit for preparedness and adaptation to climate change in the directorate-general for climate action, will replace Maria Cristina Russo, who was promoted to the position of deputy director general at DG RTD in January. 

More details here. 

Nine out of ten participants in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Networks find employment within one year after completing their degree, against just 12% for non-MSCA PhD holders, according to a study from the European Research Executive Agency. 

The study also revealed that MSCA graduates were over three times more likely than their non-MSCA peers to land a job outside of academia, namely businesses, non-profit organisations or the public sector. 

More details here.