Horizon Europe is well underway, but the world of European R&D policy goes well beyond the confines of the €95.5 billion R&D programme. EU climate, digital, agriculture and regional policies all have significant research and innovation components. National governments often come up with new R&D policies, decide to fund new research avenues, and set up international cooperation deals. This blog aims to keep you informed on all of that and more.
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The European Commission has awarded the first 130 projects a Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Seal in a bid to boost the development of clean and deep and digital tech.
The chosen projects, which in definition bring “an innovative, emerging and cutting-edge element or contributing to reducing or preventing strategic dependencies of the Union,” are expected to gain visibility and unlock additional EU funding.
“As a badge of distinction, the STEP Seal should help projects to attract private finance, particularly from investors seeking derisked projects with a strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) profile,” the Commission wrote in a statement.
Read the press release here.
The European Union and the Gates Foundation will co-host the Gavi 6.0 pledging summit in the first quarter of next year in Brussels.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has transformed global immunisation efforts by vaccinating over 1.1 billion children, saving more than 18.8 million lives from preventable diseases since 2000. Gavi efforts have generated over $250 billion in economic benefits and anticipated more than 100 outbreaks
The 2025 Gavi summit will bring together global leaders from government, partner organisations, vaccine manufacturers, civil society and the private sector, to secure crucial investments in vaccination programmes.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen the main goal for Gavi is to vaccinate 500 million children by 2030. "Gavi’s role is key for making equitable vaccine access a reality, and for empowering our partners to achieve health sovereignty,” she said.
More details here.
French universities have warned they will have to reduce student admissions, stop offering courses, and close campuses, under current government plans for the 2025 budget.
Rectors from almost 120 higher education institutions represented by France Universités declared 3 December a day of mobilisation for “universities in danger”.
“60% of them foresee that the new governmental measures might not only lead them to postpone investment and hiring of staff, but would also compel them to close down outlying campuses thanks to which students, some of them coming from deprived rural areas, are given access to the higher education system,” the association said in a statement.
The rectors say their budgets are insufficient to cover rising salary, pension and energy costs.
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded €678 million in grants to 328 researchers across all scientific disciplines.
The laureates, in majority German, will carry out projects ranging from engineering to humanities to life sciences at universities and research centres of 25 member states and other countries associated with the Horizon Europe programme.
"Congratulations to all the researchers who have won ERC Consolidator Grants, in this latest round for the mid-career stage,” ERC head Maria Leptin said in a statement. “Whilst we had the funds available to back more applicants this year than in 2023, the fact remains that many applicants who were rated as excellent in this competition will still not be funded due to lack of budget."
The new European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva, pointed out that she would make her mission to expand the ERC to "help strengthen Europe’s competitiveness and fostering ground-breaking discoveries."
The ERC expects these grants to create some 2,750 jobs for postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, and other staff.
Read the press release here.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has inaugurated 16 EIT Community Hubs across Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe to address the continent’s regional innovation gap.
These new hubs aim at fostering collaboration among local entrepreneurs, researchers, and educators to drive economic growth and bolster regional competitiveness.
The EIT Community Hubs are part of the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme, a specialised programme launched ten years ago designed to provide tailored support and expand outreach in "moderate" and "emerging" innovator countries.
More on the new 16 EIT Community Hubs here.
Earlier this week, the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research, and Energy (ITRE) released a draft report, outlining the assessment of the implementation of Horizon Europe and recommendations for the next research and innovation framework programme, FP10, set to begin in 2028.
While EARTO, an association of Europe's leading research and technology organisations, welcomed most of the report's recommendations, it urged careful consideration of the proposal to allocate half of FP10 budget to the European Research Council (ERC) and the European Innovation Council (EIC).
The group emphasised that although higher investments are needed, allocating half of the Framework Programme budget to the ERC and EIC would dramatically decrease investment for Pillar II, which funds pre-competitive research and innovation projects.
“The recommendation to allocate 50% of the FP10 budget to the ERC and the EIC seems arbitrary and overlooks the crucial role of pre-competitive collaborative and applied research as well as of public-private partnerships under Horizon Europe,” EARTO warns.
Read the EARTO reaction to the report here.
The European Parliament has adopted the 2025 budget proposed by the budget committee with 418 votes to 185 and 67 abstentions.
Parliament president, Roberta Metsola, signed next year’s EU budget into law, for which EU lawmakers successfully negotiated an additional €230.7 million beyond the initial Commission’s draft proposal.
Other than restoring Council’s cuts, MEPs secured investment increases including €422 million for Erasmus+ and €20 million for the EU research framework programme Horizon Europe, ensuring support for innovation and youth initiatives.
The Council of the EU already approved the joint text with the Parliament on the EU’s general budget for 2025 on Monday.
Read the press release here.
The newly launched European Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (ERASuD), comprising 12 leading European research organisations, is urging the EU to prioritise equitable research collaboration with low- and middle-income countries.
Unveiled on Friday, the Alliance emphasises that EU research should focus more on areas such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and economic inequality because of their effects on policymaking.
“Collaborative research on global challenges is essential to shape a more sustainable future—both for Europe and for low-and middle-income countries,” said Eloísa del Pino Matute, President of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
More on the Alliance here.
The Council of the EU has adopted a recommendation encouraging EU countries to make careers in higher education more attractive.
The document urges action to improve working conditions, support gender equality, and provide access to adequate social protection.
The Council is also calling for greater recognition of the different roles of academic staff, such as teaching, research, innovation, knowledge transfer, and mentoring, and for staff to be encouraged to engage in these activities without fear of interference.
“Today’s recommendation highlights the importance of valuing teaching on a par with research, and calls for greater recognition of the full range of career paths and activities available to academic and professional staff,” said Balázs Hankó, Hungarian Minister for Culture and Innovation.
Leading science and technology universities are urging ranking agencies to adopt more transparent and equitable evaluation methods.
CESAER, a body representing more than 50 of Europe’s leading science and technology universities, published a position paper today providing recommendations to improve university rankings.
The group advocates for:
- More transparency into the ranking methodologies, including disclosure of data sources, weightings, and calculation;
- The option for universities to opt out of rankings;
- Collaboration with institutions to develop methodologies that provide a fairer assessment of universities;
- Clear communication of rankings’ limitations and appropriate uses to help national policymakers, universities, funders, and students make informed decisions.
"Universities of science and technology play a pivotal role in contributing to competitiveness and addressing global challenges," said Orla Feely, president of CESAER and of the University College Dublin. “To fully capture their dynamic contributions and societal impact, it is essential to develop evaluation frameworks that highlight their unique strengths and the transformative value they bring to society.”
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