MEPs plan to add dual councils for Horizon Europe to draft legislation, strengthening role of researchers in setting priorities
From left to right: MEP, Christian Ehler; Rolf Kjærgaard, director of innovation at the Novo Nordisk Foundation; Elena Martines, member of research Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva’s cabinet; and Marianne Thellersen, DTU senior vice-president for innovation. Photo credits: Elio Germani
The European Parliament is preparing to take the initiative in an argument over how the next Horizon Europe programme and the new European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) will be governed.
Faced with a lack of detail on governance structures, the Parliament’s lead rapporteur on the Horizon Europe draft legislation plans to introduce structures recommended for the purpose by the Heitor report, but passed over by the European Commission.
“The Parliament’s proposal will follow the Heitor proposals to create two scientific councils [of] experts and these experts are meant to have the authority to formulate calls [and] also to stop them,” said Christian Ehler, a European People’s Party MEP who is also co-rapporteur for the ECF, at an event organised by the Technical University of Denmark on March 5.
The Heitor group, led by former Portuguese science minister Manuel Heitor,…
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