HORIZON BLOG: European R&D policy newsbytes

The European Commission has launched RM Comp, a new tool supporting research managers in developing key skills, promoting career goals and aligning practices with European standards. 

Developed under EU-funded projects CARDEA and RM ROADMAP, RM Comp helps research managers identify core competencies and advance career development for both individuals and organisations. 

“RM Comp enables self-assessment, highlights skill gaps, and guides professional development,” the Commission said. 

“Organisations can integrate the framework into hiring practices, training programmes, and performance reviews, while funding agencies and policymakers can use it to promote capacity building and collaboration.”   

RM Comp is a complement to EU tools like ResearchComp and EURAXESS. 

More about it here.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) selected 40 projects out of 413 submissions, following its Transition call, which will obtain up to €2.5 million to develop innovations in all fields of science and technology. 

The EIC Transition is a funding programme under Horizon Europe “devoted to maturing the technologies and build a business case for specific applications,” the EIC said in a statement. It targets innovations that go beyond the experimental proof of principle.  

With no predefined thematic restrictions, the EIC pointed to “the most popular [call] so far in terms of submissions.” 

Among the winning projects, HeartWise plans on advancing a prototype for an implantable mechanical device that would support blood circulation, FOREVER-WATER targets the destruction of polyfluoroalkyl substances, and UPSRPING seeks to drastically reduce energy consumption of computer chips. 

Read more about the winners here. 

The European Commission has opened a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) call for doctoral and postdoctoral fellowship programmes.  

“Organisations can use the programmes to attract international talent, increase their research and innovation capacities and contribute to the local, regional and/or national socio-economic ecosystems,” MSCA said in a statement. 

Under this call, for which the European Commission will award €101.8 million, they can offer doctoral candidates research training activities or fund career development fellowships for postdoctoral researchers. 

A single organisation in an EU member state or a country associated to Horizon Europe is eligible to apply.  

The deadline for submitting proposals is June 24. 

Read more about it here. 

The UK launched One IPO Search, a search tool set to simplify access to patent information and help businesses invest in research and development, reflecting governmental efforts to modernise digital services. 

Developed by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), One IPO Search will take over from the Ipsum service, which UK innovators had been using for 13 years and handled some 200,000 patent searches in the last 12 months alone 

This tool is expected to make patent exploration more inclusive as it eliminates the need for specialised technology knowledge: its users will be able to search keywords in everyday language and spot market trends through visual data analysis. 

“For businesses, particularly startups and SMEs, navigating the patent landscape is key but often difficult,” the statement reads. “The service accelerates innovation by facilitating quicker access to relevant data, enabling businesses to translate ideas into market-ready products more efficiently.” 

One IPO Search hopes to introduce more functionalities in the future, like receiving patent notifications and AI-assisted teaching.  

Read more about it here. 

A group of public research funding bodies, research performing organisations and national ministries shared their plans to develop and fund a collective, non-profit open access publishing service. 

In a statement of intent, the signatories said that they planned on building Open Research Europe (ORE), an open access publishing platform with open peer-review “in pursuit of more equity, diversity, and transparency in open access publishing.” 

Initially set for five years, it will broaden its publishing eligibility criteria beyond European Commission-funded researchers. 

The signatories will actively take part in the governance of ORE in collaboration with the Commission and engage with researchers as the advisors, ambassadors, editors, authors and reviewers. 

They expect the official launch of the platform by the end of 2026. 

Read the full statement here. 

The European Commission will present its new Competitiveness Compass next week, President Ursula von der Leyen told delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos.  

Von der Leyen said the Compass will serve as a blueprint for EU’s economic policy over the next four years. “The focus will be to increase productivity by closing the innovation gap”.  

To achieve that, the EU will need to roll out major reforms in three critical areas.  

First, the EU should make its capital market less fragmented and more flexible by allowing companies to tap into household savings more easily and raise the growth capital they need.  

Second, businesses should get all the support they need to remain and scale up on the continent instead of moving to the US. Such support would include cutting down “unnecessary red tape”.  

Third, the EU should diversify its energy sources, expand the use of renewables – nuclear included – and invest in the next generation of clean energy technologies such as nuclear fusion enhanced geothermal and solid-state batteries.

The Commission had already announced it will create a “European Savings and Investment Union” and will come up with “an affordable energy plan” in February. 

Read the full speech here. 

The Europe Commission has requested dispute settlement consultations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to remove “unfair and illegal trade practices” by China on intellectual property in the high-tech sector. 

China has indeed set binding worldwide royalty rates for EU standard essential patents, which protect technologies essential for the manufacture goods that meet a standard, without the consent of the patent owner.  

This compels EU high-tech companies – notably in the telecoms sectors – to lower their rates worldwide, which provide Chinese manufacturers with a cheaper access to those technologies, the Commission said in a statement. 

“The EU’s vibrant high-tech industries must be allowed to compete fairly and on a level playing field,” Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič explained. “R&D is an engine for innovation that ensures EU leadership in developing future technologies, and it needs to be properly rewarded.” 

The consultations are the first step in WTO dispute settlement proceedings, the Commission explained. If those do not lead to a satisfactory solution within 60 days, the EU will be able to move towards the litigation phase. 

China’s anti-suit injunctions, which restrain high-tech patent holders by fining or sanctioning them if they seek to enforce their intellectual property rights through a non-Chinese court, is also currently being challenged by the EU at the WTO. 

Read the statement here. 

The European Commission and the US have signed a joint statement to reaffirm their commitment to deepening cooperation on research and innovation. 

The EU and the US are expected to work towards addressing pressing global challenges, from climate change to healthcare, the Commission said in a statement. 

Signed under the EU-US Agreement on Science and Technology Cooperation “it also aims to foster scientific excellence and shared values such as openness, academic freedom, research ethics, and evidence-based policymaking,” the Commission said, citing “a significant milestone in their bilateral relationship.” 

Read more about it here. 

The Partnership Knowledge Hub (PKH), a Horizon Europe expert group advising the Commission on coordinating EU R&I partnerships, has published a position paper calling for greater flexibility in implementing partnerships under the EU next research framework programme, FP10, set to start in 2028.

As partnerships differ significantly from regular R&I projects, the group argues that administrative procedure should differ from those used for other research framework programme’s actions.

“Partnerships need a dedicated set of ‘rules for participation’ that are attractive for partners and allow partnerships to achieve their objectives in a tailor-made and flexible manner without compromising their accountability,” the position paper emphasises.

Read the PKH opinion on European Partnerships under FP10 here.

Adopting a coordinated approach at the EU level by leveraging the full potential of the single market and economic and monetary union could significantly boost the bloc’s competitiveness, according to a European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) study published on Monday. 

“The study finds that, compared to a situation where member states act alone, a coordinated approach at EU level could bring an additional 0.9 % of GDP in 2035,” the document says. Moreover, a more ambitious integrated approach could lead to a benefit estimated at 2.6 % of additional GDP by 2035. 

With the EU lagging behind the US and China in research and innovation, the study emphasises the need for member states to act collectively to reduce inefficiencies. It also calls for greater private investment, more public-private partnerships, and more effective public funding in manufacturing, scaling-up, and infrastructure.

Read the EPRS study here.