The European Commission has published a report on lessons learnt from the Horizon 2020 Focus Area approach, providing guidance for the Horizon Europe Missions.
The European Commission (EC) has published a report on lessons learnt from the Horizon 2020 (H2020) Focus Areas and its implications for the Horizon Europe Missions (see SwissCore article). The Focus Areas approach was a key novelty of Horizon 2020. The Focus Areas cut across thematic boundaries and bring together contributions from various programme parts to pursue a common objective and create sustained impact. They can be seen as a precursor to the EU Missions introduced in Horizon Europe. The main findings of the report lay down the need for a strong internal mandate to align project results and executive action, the possible incompatibilities between economic and environmental objectives, and the role of social sciences and humanities in solving societal challenges to get the best possible outcome of the Missions.
The Focus Areas are considered as a major attempt inside the EC to bring people involved in different Directorate Generals (DGs) and societal challenges together. This approach was successful as internal awareness of what was happening in other DGs was improved. The awareness led to the increased emphasis on synergies that led to the organisation of contact and exchange between beneficiaries. Furthermore, policymakers from the Commission consider the approach fruitful in giving the expected focus and impact of research and innovation projects a more central place in European science policy. Lastly, the Focus Area is an intermediary between earlier work packages and Horizon Europe that first allowed for the uptake of knowledge gained before. A significant limitation is found in the legislative background of the policy, whereby Focus Areas come as an extra layer of cooperation. This leads to additional complexity and fragmentation that could create some issues of coherence.
Based on the drivers and barriers of the Focus Area approach, policy lessons in four broad domains of policy learning, which resonate on the level of Horizon Europe Missions, were evaluated. To achieve an inclusive mission-oriented approach three concrete policy options are presented: The first option is a combination of generic funding with an accommodating tax incentive policy. A second option emphasises on a policy that trades less centrally created focus for an increase in inclusivity. Finally, a dual approach with two separate funding schemes should be established to create collaboration dynamics.
For the European Missions, the experts recommend a more top-down agreement and formalised structure to stay focused. In the case of more diverse or heterogeneous missions, it is essential to opt for more active communication and monitoring processes to demonstrate the relatedness and relevance of projects subsumed under the Focus Area. As a result, beneficiaries do not have to look for one unifying theme but can relate to one of the calls that are loosely related to it. To address the risk of path dependencies, the policy recommendation focuses on bringing the tension between the economic objectives that predominated before and new environmental and societal objectives more broadly conceived to the centre of attention. The societal impact that beneficiaries are expected to create should be achievable to allow for a sense of ownership. The call should make concrete statements about the expected impact but still allow the application some leeway in how to achieve it. It could be necessary to distinguish the short, medium and long-term objectives better.