Lund Declaration: let Grand Challenges drive EU research

Jose Manuel Silva Rodriguez, Director General of Research at the European Commission

This will require a “new deal” among European research institutions and member states, in which national research funding is aligned with the Commission’s research budget and the public and private sectors work together seamlessly.

The declaration was handed over to the Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research, Tobias Krantz, as the first major science policy conference of the Swedish Presidency, ‘New World, New Solutions’, came to a close at Lund University.

The three-point Declaration is the fruit of four international workshops held in preparation for the conference, which brought together 350 researchers, politicians, industrialists and research funders to plot the future course – from 2014 to 2019 – for Framework Programme 8.

The conclusions of the two days of discussion at the conference will put flesh on the bare-bones objectives of the Declaration. At the heart of all the summaries of the various workshops at Lund was the theme of throwing the combined weight of European science at the Grand Challenges of climate change, energy security, ageing, food and feedstock supplies, global pandemics, health inequality and sustainability.

But whatever these lofty ambitions, the old Framework Programme bugbears of lack of trust and stifling bureaucracy of the grant application process, were also given an airing. Responding to the inevitable criticism, Jose Manuel Silva Rodriguez, Director General of Research at the Commission, made an unequivocal commitment saying, “It is time to change the rules: we will do that as soon as possible, we promise you.”

Silva Rodriguez said it is now obvious that the way to ensure accountability is to make the rules around Framework Programme grants simpler. “The more complicated the rules, the less accountable [the system]. We will simplify the rules and give more responsibility to the actors.”

Another change Silva Rodriguez promised is that Framework Programme 8 will fund basic research. “We have to make an effort to fund more basic science,” he said. At the same time – taking the European Research Council as the exemplar – this will be linked to a great emphasis on excellence.

“We have to improve the quality of all programmes,” said Silva Rodriguez, adding, “We have to develop [R&D] at a European level and member state level.”

Framework Programme 8 will also fund riskier projects, Silva Rodriguez said. “Probably scientists are more ready to take risks. It’s more complicated to do at the level of political power: we have to help politicians to take risks.” He called on industry and the financial sector to share the burden of risk, saying, “Science is a market, and particularly the innovation coming from science; there has to be risk-sharing.”

Silva Rodriguez foresaw the combining of different funding instruments, in particular pulling in resources from structural funds, to channel more money into science, and said there is a need for more collaboration. “European science is ready for the Grand Challenges: it has the capacity but we have to [be more] advanced in working together.”

Finally, Framework Programme 8 must recognise the global nature of science. “There has got to be global cooperation,” said Silva Rodriguez, noting that Framework is the most international of all research programmes in the world. “We are not in a bad place. We have to continue with this effort,” he concluded.