The European Commission’s policy outline aims to support the green and digital transition. It extends beyond research, including innovation and education.
On 30 September 2020, the European Commission (EC) published its Communication “A new European Research Area (ERA) for Research and Innovation”. Since its launch in 2000, the ERA has brought progress, for instance on better coordination of research infrastructures across Europe. Most Member States and Associated Countries like Switzerland have adopted their own national ERA Roadmaps, setting out how they plan to contribute to the ERA. However, key objectives, such as the target to invest 3% of the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) into research and innovation (R&I) were not reached. Discrepancies between the different national R&I systems pose another challenge. The policy input from the European R&I community leading up to the new Communication showed widespread interest that these issues are addressed (see SwissCore article).
The EC’s Communication on the new ERA includes a strong focus on better integrating Member States with a weaker R&I system into the ERA. The policy outline also addresses how the new ERA could contribute to the EU’s key priorities such as the green and the digital transitions, which include reaching climate neutrality by 2050 and making Europe fit for the digital age. Furthermore, the document outlines how the ERA can support the recovery and resilience of societies and economies facing the COVID-19 crisis. The Communication includes an ERA Roadmap for the next actions, mainly featuring deadlines in 2021 and 2022. It is structured along four main objectives: prioritising investments and reforms, improving access to excellence, faster translating R&I results into the economy and deepening the ERA.
Prioritising investments and reforms, improving access to excellence: The EC proposes that Member States reconfirm the 3% of EU GDP combined private and public R&I investment target and complement it with a new additional target of 1.25% of GDP for its public share, to be achieved by Member States until 2030. The strategic objective “Improving access to excellence” foresees that Member States lagging behind the EU average R&I investment over GDP increase their total investment in R&I by 50% in the next 5 years. The EC will support reforms of Member States’ R&I policies via the Recovery and Resilience Facility under the Next Generation EU recovery instrument, regular dialogue and technical assistance. In this context, the EC proposes to work with Member States in an ERA Forum for Transition to support R&I reforms in their Recovery and Resilience plans.
Faster translating R&I results into the economy: The Communication addresses topics beyond research, linking the ERA to the EU’s New Industrial Strategy (see SwissCore article). This link foresees the development of common industrial technology roadmaps by the end of 2022 to improve the uptake of Horizon Europe results by the economy. The roadmaps will be part of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agendas, which the EC defines together with Member States and industry for Horizon Europe R&I Partnerships.
Deepening the ERA: The EC intends to improve career development for young researchers beyond the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. A toolbox including an enhanced European competence framework for research careers should support comparable and interoperable research careers by identifying a set of core skills, which will help modernising rewarding systems. An additional tool, the ERA4You initiative would create opportunities for researchers to access excellence and gain experience through dedicated mobility schemes between industry and academia. The Communication also foresees to extend the EURAXESS services, network and portals, and broaden them into an ERA Talent Platform, an online one-stop–shop, exploiting links to Europass. The EC plans to implement this toolbox via synergies with mobility and career development initiatives of the European Education Area (EEA). Furthermore, the Commission proposes to develop inclusive gender equality plans in 2021 together with Member States and R&I stakeholders.
The launch of an Open Research Europe publishing platform should ensure that all publicly funded research output is integrated into a single European data space. The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) should become a common, federated, European framework for openly sharing research data and accessing services. Thus, research data must be made available in a findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) way.
The EC considers large-scale research infrastructures as a backbone of the ERA and important for making Europe an attractive place for the best researchers internationally. The ERA Communication states that research infrastructures have greater benefit when used both for research and technological applications, as the latter strengthens economic development and also contributes to the EU’s policy priorities in the area of the green and digital transitions.
The push beyond “research” includes a strong focus on synergies with education. The ERA Communication proposes that the EU will, through the EEA and the European Research Area and Innovation Committee (ERAC) steering bodies, develop a roadmap of actions for creating synergies between higher education and research in 2021.
The EC wants to improve transparent monitoring of the ERA by introducing a yearly ERA Scoreboard, addressing progress at EU and national level. The ERAC will continue to carry out its oversight role of day-to-day implementation through working groups and should ensure the follow-up at national level. In addition, the Communication proposes to launch a European Pact for Research and Innovation in the first half of 2021, supporting the implementation of the ERA objectives and indicate areas where Member States will jointly develop actions.
In their reactions in October, European R&I associations voiced support to the new Communication. The European University Association (EUA) welcomes the new ERA policy outline, especially the push for synergies with the EEA. However, EUA also expressed concern about the level of ambition, given the current budget proposal for Horizon Europe. Science Europe President Marc Schlitz acknowledged the importance of national investments to make the ERA a success and called for more joint programmes and partnerships to rationalise the use of public R&I funds. CESAER cautioned against “too much top-down programming” and thus, calls for a stronger emphasis on the European Research Council, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and Research Infrastructures. CESAER also calls for a swift association of third countries like Switzerland and the UK to Horizon Europe to not endanger existing collaborations. EARTO welcomes that the ERA Communication includes a focus on developing a strong European industrial base and technological sovereignty.
The ERA Communication will serve as a basis for the EU Research Ministers to work out Council Conclusions, foreseen for adoption on 27 November 2020.