HORIZON BLOG: European R&D policy newsbytes

On Thursday, the Irish government announced the creation of Taighde Éireann (Research Ireland), a new competitive research funding agency.

The new agency will merge the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland activities, helping in achieving the objectives of Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy.

“This agency will enhance our capacity to address the issues Irish society is facing, in particular climate change and the digital transition. It will also enable us to engage and compete with greater impact at an international level, making the most of future opportunities in research and innovation,” said Ireland’s Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Patrick O’Donovan.

Read the full announcement here.

The Commission has launched a consultation on an upcoming code of practice for general-purpose artificial intelligence (GPAI) models. It is inviting input from GPAI providers with operations in the EU, businesses, civil society representatives, rights holders and academic experts.

The code of practice is foreseen by the EU’s AI Act, and will address areas including transparency, copyright-related rules, risk identification and assessment, and risk mitigation.

The Commission expects to finalise the code of practice by April 2025 ahead of an entry into application in August 2025, with the newly-created AI Office set to oversee the enforcement of the rules.

The AI Act officially entered into force on 1 August. Its first provisions, banning AI systems judged to present unacceptable risk, will take effect in February 2025. Most of the rules though will not kick in until 2 August 2026.

The European Commission has greenlighted a €998 million Dutch state aid measure to support the production of renewable hydrogen.

The funding will be awarded through competitive bidding by the end of 2024, taking the form of a direct grant.

“This €998 million Dutch scheme will help scaling up the production of renewable hydrogen in the Netherlands by providing support to electrolysers projects of all size, while ensuring that any potential competition distortions are kept to the minimum,” said Margrethe Vestager, competition commissioner.

More details here.

A group made up of European corporate bosses has set out its recommendations for the successor to Horizon Europe, framework programme 10, arguing that it should allow for dual use research, overturning the current programme's exclusive civilian focus. 

The European Round Table for Industry says that Europe "cannot afford to forego important innovation synergies" between military and civilian projects in its new  position paper on FP10, which is currently being debate in Brussels. 

The group, like other lobbying bodies, is shooting for a €200 billion budget, but also warns against too much tinkering with the structure. "A complete re-design would mean significant delays, disruption and uncertainty throughout the ecosystem," the paper warns. 

EU scale-ups raise half as much capital as their Silicon Valley peers after ten years, but a similar amount to companies based in London, according to a new report on the “scale-up gap” from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The EIB defines scale-ups as young firms with high growth potential, at an intermediate stage of development between the start-up and mature stage.

This lack of local investors is pushing many EU companies to seek funding abroad and, at exit, to look for a foreign buyer or to get listed on a foreign stock exchange. A third of all EU scale-ups at initial public offering (IPO) stage choose to list on a US stock exchange, according to the EIB analysis.

The solution, the report says, is to deepen EU capital markets, including by channelling private savings into venture capital investments in innovative companies. The public sector can help by investing in innovation to catalyse private investment, addressing barriers to the single market, and tackling skilled labour shortages.

The European Commission approved a €2 billion Dutch State aid measure to support project aimed at producing medical radioisotopes for cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The initiative involves building a reactor and a nuclear health center in Petten, the Netherlands, which should help secure the supply of vital, life-saving medications.

The support will come as loans and equity, and the new reactor is envisioned to start operating in the early 2030s.

“This €2 billion measure enables the Netherlands to support a strategic project contributing to the securing of supply of essential medicines and to the development of breakthrough innovation in the field of nuclear technology to the benefit of European citizens,” said Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of competition policy.

Read the full announcement here.

Spain will receive €1.2 billion in EU funding to support investments in the production of renewable hydrogen, the Commission decided today.

Direct grants will be awarded to successful projects, which could include proposals to improve the production of renewable hydrogen-derived fuels, renewable hydrogen storage, and the production of renewable electricity.

The scheme will help Spain reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels, said Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of competition policy.

More details here.

A quarter of European higher education institutions have reported low or decreasing institutional autonomy, according to results from the ninth annual report by the European University Association (EUA), which surveyed 489 institutions in the European Higher Education Area. 

Two thirds of institutions in Ireland said institutional autonomy had decreased in the past five years, as did 56% of institutions in the UK, 43% in Latvia and Sweden, and 40% in Belgium.

Meanwhile, a third of institutions in Hungary and the UK and about 40% of institutions in the Netherlands and Poland noted a decrease in academic freedom in the same period.

On the other hand, an above-average proportion of institutions in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo and Moldova reported both an increase in institutional autonomy and in academic integrity.

The European Commission has published its European Research Area (ERA) Industrial Technologies Roadmap on Human-Centric Research and Innovation for the manufacturing sector, setting out policy recommendations for ensuring the digital transition brings about social and not only economic benefits.

Human-centric outcomes include improving workers’ safety and wellbeing, upskilling or learning. They are one of the pillars of the Commission’s ‘Industry 5.0’ approach, which aims to direct R&I efforts towards a sustainable, human-centric and resilient European industry.

The roadmap warns that the majority of companies developing human-centred technologies for the European market are based in non-EU countries such as the US and China. It does though report an increase in venture capital investment in start-ups related to human-centric enabling technologies, which need to be matched with more public funding.

The EU and Serbia have signed a memorandum of understanding to form a partnership in sustainable raw materials, battery value chains and electric vehicles.

The aim is to develop local industries, create high-quality jobs and ensure environmental and social standards, while fostering public-private collaboration.

There will be five areas of cooperation:

• developing raw material, battery, and EV value chains;
• collaborating on research and innovation;
• applying environmental, social and governance standards;
• mobilising financial and investment instruments;
• developing skills for high quality jobs in the raw materials and battery sectors.

Collaboration in these key sectors, will “unlock immense potential for sustainable growth and innovation,” said Maroš Šefčovič, executive vice president for the European Green Deal. At the same time it will enhance Serbia’s integration with the EU’s single market  “further boosting its economic, social and environmental convergence with the EU,” he said.

More details here.