Panel debates scrapping Horizon Europe consortia, introducing prizes and chopping the European Innovation Council in half
From left to right: David Matthews, international editor at Science|Business, Paul Corson, chief innovation and entrepreneurship officer for the University of Texas at Arlington, Paulo Andrez, president emeritus of the European Business Angel Network, Giuseppe Iannaccone, deputy rector at the University of Pisa, and Albert Bravo-Biosca, director of the Innovation Growth Lab at Nesta. Photo credits: Jeroen Vanhecke
Horizon Europe should end funding for research consortia unless they can better prove their value, according to one panellist on a debate into how Europe can experiment with radical ways of funding research and technology, and what should be scrapped.
Albert Bravo-Biosca, director of the Innovation Growth Lab, a think tank based in Barcelona and London that designs policies to boost productivity, said many consortia funded under Pillar 2 of the EU’s research programme were producing “very very little” European value.
Defenders of Pillar 2, which takes the lion’s share of the programme’s €93.5 billion budget, say consortia have strengthened links across Europe between researchers and companies.
But Pillar 2 has also long been criticised for spreading too little money across sprawling teams in overly restricted project calls. Marc Lemaître, the European Commission’s director general for research and innovation, https://sciencebusiness.net/news…
Discover the latest in research funding every Tuesday with Funding Newswire. Dive into detailed articles with our monthly or yearly subscriptions or start with a free trial
NOTE: if you're a part of one of our Network member organisations, you get free access by signing up with your institutional email. Verify your eligibility here.
Receive the Funding Newswire [full access requires a subscription] each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and the fortnightly R&D Express, tracking reforms and investments in central and eastern Europe. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.