HORIZON BLOG: European R&D policy newsbytes (Archived_02)

The European Innovation Council (EIC) has selected 19 projects following the April 2023 EIC Transition cut-off.

The successful projects come from 18 EU member states and Horizon Europe associated countries, and were selected from a pool of 180 eligible submissions. They will receive a total of €46.76 million in EU cash (up to €2.5 million each).

More details on the projects are available here.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has released a new report into the research and innovation policies of Austria, Finland and Sweden, and how these countries have used the EU's huge post-pandemic stimulus package to effect change. 

States increasingly want to use research and innovation policy to try to change their economies and societies. 

But research policy may have played less of a role than expected in national Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs), which set out how members states plan to spend their stimulus cash.

"Surprisingly, the role of R&I policy in the RRPs is less important than expected, despite its emphasised importance in literature and political rhetoric," the OECD's study found.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is looking for four new governing board members. 

Board members set the EIT's strategic leadership, and select, fund and evaluate the organisation's sector-specific communities. 

Candidates need at least five years of professional experience in research and innovation, business or education. 

The application deadline is 29 October. 

The European Parliament has published a background document on the upcoming interim evaluation of Horizon Europe, which is set to be published by mid-2025. 

The Parliament’s document comes after former research Commissioner Mariya Gabriel stepped down in May to return to domestic politics in Bulgaria, with Iliana Ivanova being nominated as her replacement. 

It sets out the progress to date of Horizon Europe projects and responses to the framework programme from stakeholders, which were gathered in a public consultation between December 2022 and February 2023. 

It also reiterates the Parliament’s position on several aspects of Horizon Europe, including the implementation of the European Innovation Council grants, the overall Horizon Europe budget and synergies between various EU research and innovation programmes.

The five European cities in the running to win the European Green Capital and Green Leaf Awards have been named. 

For the European Green Capital, which recognises cities of over 100,000 inhabitants for their work in addressing environmental challenges, the final three shortlisted cities are Graz in Austria, Guimarães in Portugal and Vilnius in Lithuania. 

For the Green Leaf Awards, which recognises smaller urban areas, the two finalists are Viladecans in Spain) and Treviso in Italy.

The winners will be announced in this year’s European Green Capital, which is Tallinn in Estonia, on 5 October.

The OECD has published its second of three reports on how science was mobilised during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This latest paper focuses on activities linking society and science, for example agenda setting, public communication and engagement. 

It follows the organisation’s first report looking at policy for science and key systems to boost science, such as research infrastructures and public-private partnerships.

The African Union (AU) and the EU adopted a new joint innovation agenda agenda aimed at increasing the capacity of African research.

“The Innovation Agenda will represent the backbone of our cooperation supporting research and innovation actions with Africa,” said Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president of the European Commission.

“Research and Innovation endeavours are to be translated into actual products, services, businesses and jobs thereby developing a long-term sustainable AU-EU cooperation model,” said Mohamed Belhocine, commissioner for science and technology at the AU Commission.

EU commissioner Thierry Breton and Chilean foreign affairs minister Alberto van Klaveren Stork have signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen cooperation in the field of sustainable raw materials value chains.

The deal will enable bilateral cooperation on research and innovation projects in the field, including minerals knowledge and minimizing environmental and climate footprints.

The European Commission has announced a new cooperation framework in the field of digital technologies with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The EU-LAC Digital Alliance is an informal, values-based framework for cooperation, open to all Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries and EU Member States who may participate through their respective governments and agencies related to the digital agenda.

José Luis Martínez Peña is set to become chair of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) from 1 January 2024, replacing Slovenian science manager Jana Kolar. 

Martínez Peña is a research professor at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid (CSIC) and has a long background in research infrastructures. He has in the past advised the Spanish government on large infrastructures such as the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, and has also worked as the associate director of the  Institut Max von Laue-Paul Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble and was executive director at ESS-Bilbao in Spain.  He was also a member of the rector committee at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre. 

ESFRI chairs hold the position for a fixed term of two years. Outgoing chair Kolar congratulated her successor in a post on Twitter.