New rules are agreed for the €7B Joint Technology Initiatives

The European Parliament (EP) and the Council have agreed amendments on the shape of the new Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI), Horizon 2020’s largest remaining piece of legislation, following criticism of the first phase under Framework Programme 7.

Among the main changes is an enhanced role for scientific committees, better feedback on progress to member states, help for smaller partners in navigating intellectual property (IP) terms, a requirement for projects to publish more information and a beefed-up interim assessment of performance.

Unfamiliarity with the formation and running of public-private partnerships (PPPs) presented a steep learning curve for many participants in the first phase of JTIs from 2007-2013. Administrative density, unfamiliar IP terms and finding coherence with so many people sitting around the same table were among the main bugbears. 

“The projects need flexibility but we wanted to have a structure that was transparent,” Christian Ehler, MEP and one of the lead negotiators, told Science|Business. “There is a lot of money going to industry so we needed to ensure accountability.”

The Council and the European Parliament’s research committee (ITRE) are expected to endorse the agreement before it is put to a vote in the Parliament in April.

Budget cuts

There has also been a cut to the JTIs’ budget. The Commission’s original proposal, released last July, allocated over €7.64 billion. However, this propsal was made before the overall budget of Horizon 2020 was reduced by 12.5 per cent. This left the Council and the Parliament having to decide what to cut.

Originally, the Parliament suggested a five per cent cut across the board. The preliminary agreement is now a five per cent cut for the Innovative Medicines Initiative and Fuel Cells, with the other JTIs being cut by two and a half per cent.

Amongst the changes agreed by the European Council and the European Parliament, a small but significant step involves improving communication and dissemination. Finding information on new JTI calls will now be easier as they will be included on the Horizon 2020 portal, whereas before they were only advertised through the JTIs’ own websites.

Elsewhere, MEPs wanted to see that the JTIs’ scientific committees and member states were being listened to. For some JTIs there were complaints that governing boards were not communicating fully with member state representatives, or taking on board the opinions of the scientific committees. The new proposals grant state representatives and science committees observer status in governing board meetings.

Many researchers and SMEs complained of a lack of guidance in the last round. "As a small example, in the Innovative Medicines Initiative, there’s an imbalance between big and small partners when it comes to knowledge about intellectual property law. We wanted to make sure smaller actors such as SMEs, universities, or research centres could gain sufficient advice on IP rights and patent questions," said Ehler.

What are the JTIs?

The JTIs, which came to life in Horizon 2020’s predecessor, Framework Programme 7, are five large-scale public private partnerships
 

Each JTI is an independent legal entity jointly funded by the European Commission and industry. The Commission will put in up to 50 per cent in cash, while the contribution of industrial partners can consist of both in-kind contributions and hard cash. In the case of ECSEL, the member states are also putting in money.

New kids on the block

IMI, Fuel Cells and Clean Sky carry on from FP7, while ECSEL is a tie-up of two current partnerships, ENIAC, which specialised in nanoelectronics, and ARTEMIS, which carried out research in embedded computing.

Andreas Wild, Executive Director of ENIAC, said he is a, “strong advocate of the merger.” It will link the value chain of electronics a bit better, by combining chips with embedded software, he believes.

Wild is also relaxed about merging the two entities. “We don’t expect the transition to be tremendous. We have a lot of contact. We’re supporting different disciplines of the same industry and are located on the same floor in the same building.”

The Bio-based industries JTI is a new entity starting under Horizon 2020. Dirk Carrez, coordinator, said Europe’s bio-based organisations need to catch up. “Some years ago, Europe was creating knowledge, but a lot of the deployment was happening in the US and Asia. In response, the Commission brought us around the table. We had no legal entity at that time. We had to organise ourselves.”

Carrez predicts the new partnership will hit the ground running. “We learned a lot from the other JTIs. Many procedures had already been tested.”

Growing pains

The JTIs are largely regarded as a mixed success, with Clean Sky widely complimented for its progress, while ARTEMIS and ENIAC, now merged as ECSEL, were seen as too similar. In the early days it was hard to gain traction. Wild observes that, “our project was itself a small European Union with 24 members around the table looking for coherence. It took some time for authorities to grow together; it did not happen spontaneously.”

It also took time to get the JTIs up and running in the first place, with IMI, for example, taking almost two years to set up its office.

Commenting on co-managing a JTI between industry and the European Commission, Bert de Colvenaer, Executive Director of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2, likens it to being, “the captain of a large ship flowing down a narrow canal – you have to make sure you are not strongly touching either side.”

JTIs drew fire from public research organisations because of problems with IP, including restrictions on the publication of results by academic partners and automatic access rights to all project affiliates.

Paul Van Dun, Director of the League of European Research Universities, said that JTIs are a worrying trend in general and point towards a, “distrust of the capacity of public research institutions to organise tech transfer activity.”

“The arrival in the funding landscape of organisations like IMI and other JTIs, which impose a completely different view on the role and use of intellectual property - without sound economic basis, one might say - is not helpful in this respect,” Van Dun said.

Moreover, the fact that JTIs constitute a special funding channel, whose rules can deviate to a large extent from the general Horizon 2020 rules, “Runs counter to the declared simplification efforts,” Van Dun added.

While universities feel they’re not getting a fair say, not everyone agrees. Universities have, “unrealistic expectations,” said Wild. “Of course universities are at the forefront of research but that is not enough. JTIs facilitate the hand-over of knowledge from universities to industry.”

Industry’s contribution, largely made in kind, also drew criticism for a lack of transparency, making it hard to verify companies actually delivered their end of the deal.

Project coordinators also faced headaches when managing applications to ENIAC and ARTEMIS, because member states had a direct say in these two JTIs.

Marieke Reijalt, liaison manager of the European Association for Hydrogen, Fuel Cells and Electro-mobility, commenting on the first phase of Fuel Cells and Hydrogen, said local public support is needed to help role out fuel cell-powered vehicles. However, local government did not have sufficient buy-in. The unfamiliar model of PPPs was a factor, and highlighted industry’s inexperience in consulting with local public players. “Car manufacturers, for example, are not used to discussing their deployment plans for fuel cell vehicles with local authorities, said Reijalt. “This makes it challenging for regions to facilitate the right conditions for their rollout.”

In the lead-in to Horizon 2020, the Commission acknowledged that JTIs had not been as successful as hoped and that improvements were needed. EU research Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said that JTIs would only continue, “using a more appropriate or fit-for-purpose structure.”

Tying up loose ends

Second time around, and the process should be easier. Experience has been gained and it’s clearer what needs attention. Michel Goldman, Executive Director of IMI, expects “evolution and not revolution.”

Projects will have a greater scope to invite a wider range of people to take part. “We welcome an increased flexibility in participation,” said Goldman. In IMI2, for example, and IT companies will be brought into the fold to deal with data management.

Under the Commission’s new regional smart specialisation agenda, new forms of cooperation between research and industry at a local level are expected. In pursuit of this, JTIs are now explicitly encouraged to seek partnerships with SMEs and researchers in their own back yards.