Exclusive: Commission officials mull major boost to R&D budget

Deputy Director General Zoran Stančič: “Can we be more ambitious.”

The European Union has a “unique opportunity” to boost European competitiveness if a mid-term review of the seven-year EU Financial Perspective for 2007–2013 leads to overall budget increases, and in the longer run in the new Financial Perspectives beyond 2013, said Zoran Stančič, deputy director general of the research Directorate-General of the European Commission, at a seminar hosted by Science|Business in Brussels last week.

Different parts of the Commission have already started preparing for the mid-term review, which will begin in earnest in 2009. “Knowledge investment [research, education, innovation] should have a strong case” for a larger budget, Stančič said, in line with the Commission's wider priorities.

DG Research has a good track record for distributing large amounts of research money efficiently, he said.

The half-day seminar focused on the question of how the €54 billion allocated to research under the seventh Framework Programme (FP7) is being spent, but Stančič raised more fundamental questions.

“It’s not just how to spend the money but how much? Can we be more ambitious?”  Is the money reserved for knowledge investment “too little, too late?” he asked.

In 2006 the European Parliament and the Council approved a 65 per cent increase in EU-wide R&D spending over the next seven years. The sharp rise in the R&D budget illustrated how important politicians regarded research.

“I’m pleased to hear our political leaders highlight research as a key driver for the development of the EU and the world. I think we have a strong case. It's a unique opportunity,” Stančič said".

“The beginning of funding under FP7 is not as steep as the research community and Industry would like. Is the funding coming too late? We can’t shift money from one budget to another but through Annual Work Programmes, [but] we can shift gears,” he said.

If there are proposed increases in the budget following the mid-term review, the Commission will push to have those increases reflected in the research budget. Looking further forward, to the new Financial Perspectives beyond 2013, research would also be a contender for budget increases in real terms. The €72 billion figure the Commission originally proposed investing on FP7 when the budget was agreed two years ago was cut to €54 billion after lengthy debate both by the European Parliament and the Council.

“I don’t know if the Commission will be as ambitious as it was then but there’s no reason why it should be less ambitious,” he said.

Stančič’s bullish remarks were welcomed by his fellow panelist, Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, Secretary General of the European Research Council, and by around 30 participants in the seminar from industry, universities and government authorities.

But Winnacker was less hopeful in the short term. “The possibility for radical changes to the budget in the mid-term review is very small,” he said, adding that the time to present more ambitious plans for European research is when the next seven-year budget is set in 2013.

The only way to get more funding for research in the meantime is for the 27 member states to spend a larger proportion of their national budgets on research and development. Winnacker praised Switzerland, a non-EU country that participates in EU research programmes. Switzerland spends 4.2 per cent of its budget on R&D. The EU average is 1.84 per cent. Some EU members including Italy spend less than 1 per cent on R&D. “Member states have to get their acts together: 1.84 per cent is too low,” he said.