The 2025 Polish Presidency’s leitmotif in the field of research is openness, despite the overarching focus on security in all its dimensions.
The end of the year is near and in the EU this also means that another Member State will take over the Presidency of the Council of the EU. In the first half of 2025, this will be Poland. The official motto is “Security, Europe!” which poignantly summarises the overarching priority of security in all its dimensions. This includes defence, border protection, resistance to foreign interference but also economic, energy, and health security. The Polish government also held a competition to find the official Children’s logo for the Presidency (winner see here). The symbol of the house in the young artist’s winning entry encapsulates the security motto almost better than the official logo. The Polish Presidency programme takes place in the context of heightened geopolitical tensions and a difficult war in Ukraine, and increasing threats to democracy but also academia, research and development. Economic and research security will therefore undoubtedly be even more prominent themes for the next semester. In contrast, the Presidency programme also states the “leitmotif for activity in the research field is openness and synergy”. This includes stimulating European collaboration in research and innovation, as well as making use of more synergies between regional, national and European funding for research and innovation.
With a new European Commission (since 1st December) and a new European Parliament (since July) finally in place, the Polish Presidency will have a flurry of new initiatives and legislative files to work on. The EU will, for example, define their next European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda for the years 2025-2027, and the European Commission will at the same time prepare a new ERA Act to facilitate cross-border collaboration in this sector. Furthermore, the Presidency will work on the topic of AI in Science as well as the mid-term evaluations of Horizon Europe and Erasmus+. A high-level Presidency conference on the topic of intellectual property will take place in Kraków on 20-21 May 2025. In education, in particular, the work will focus on resilient and inclusive education systems, the preparation of the next cycle of the European Education Area 2025-2030, as well as the European Degree. A flagship Presidency conference on inclusive education will be held in Warsaw on 17-18 March 2025; and a meeting of the Forum of European University Alliances will take place on 12-13 June 2025 in Wrocław.
In other good news, the European Commission and Japan have started formal negotiations for association to Horizon Europe’s Pillar 2 on 29 November 2024. Their association would follow the same model as New Zealand and Canada, based on the possibility in Horizon Europe to associate like-minded non-EU countries with a strong science and innovation sector. Once South Korea’s association agreement is signed, there will be a record of 20 non-EU countries associated to Horizon Europe in 2025.