The Commission provides a comprehensive basis for the second strategic plan of Horizon Europe. Negotiations on association start with Korea.
On 25 May 2023, the European Commission (EC) published the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027 Analysis. Following last month’s results of the public consultation on the past, present, and future of the EU framework programmes for research and innovation (see SwissCore article), the analysis provides an additional important basis for the preparation of the second half of Horizon Europe. The new report, structured in five parts, first dives into the multitude of today’s societal challenges, including the geopolitical uncertainties following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and looks into different scenarios for the future. Foresight is an essential part of the analysis, which identifies key political, socioeconomic and environmental drivers that are relevant for the EU and Member States’ policy priorities, as well as challenges and opportunities European society is facing. The 187-page document provides considerable background information, not only focusing on societal challenges, like climate change, energy security, or the digital transformation, but also listing policies that have been developed to tackle the challenges so far.
While this first part of the analysis provides the backdrop of today’s challenges and opportunities, the second part looks into the EU’s R&I landscape from a global perspective, giving an overview of the state of R&I in Europe, its strengths and weaknesses. The report finds that the EU and its Member States are still lagging behind the United States, Japan and China when it comes to research and development expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product. Although the EU contributed 20% of the world’s scientific output in 2020, ranking second only to China, the bloc falls behind when it comes to the impact of its research: The EU is ranking third after China and the United States regarding the world share of the top 1% most-cited scientific publications. In addition, the EC analysis finds that there is too little focus on strategic disciplines, summarising the situation somewhat pointedly: “In academic research, the EU specialises in humanities, the United States in health technologies and China in digital technologies.”
The report’s third part focuses on possible new research needs and potentials arising from the global challenges that were identified in the first part of the analysis, namely the R&I needs for delivering on the European Green Deal, including achieving climate neutrality, protecting and restoring ecosystems, sustainable mobility, and a focus on energy-intensive industries. Equally important are the R&I needs for addressing the digital and technological transformation, especially digital technologies and productivity growth – and technological sovereignty in the digital area. Moreover, the EC identifies R&I needs for increasing EU resilience. This includes not only civil security, but also health and well-being, social fairness, and social, institutional, and democratic dimensions.
The fourth part focuses on the potential of Horizon Europe to address crucial issues, including a gap analysis of what has already been achieved in the work programmes 2021-2024 compared to the strategic plan for the same period. The report identifies numerous potential gaps for the six clusters of Horizon Europe’s second pillar. However, the analysis also finds that Horizon Europe “is almost on track in terms of climate mainstreaming and the commitment to spend at least 35% of Horizon Europe resources on climate action”. Preliminary figures indicate that Horizon Europe has indeed contributed 34% on climate change topics through the combined 2021 and 2022 operational budgets. The report pays special attention to synergies, which are seen as key for all EU programmes under the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework. The EC concludes that there are still challenges to maximising the potential of synergies as “fostering strategic synergies is also very much a governance issue, calling for increased cooperation and continuous dialogue between EU bodies, national managing authorities and local authorities.” The chapter also includes comparisons to Horizon 2020, illustrating that the 9th framework programme due to its larger budget can fund more projects than its predecessor. However, the analysis shows that “71% of the high-quality proposals are still not receiving funding because the budget is too small”. The EC estimates that to fund all high-quality proposals, an additional EUR 34 billion would have been needed for 2021–2022.
The fifth and final part of the analysis covers potentials and limitations for the take-up of results of Horizon Europe. The conclusions that the EC draws in this part are sobering: “The take-up of R&I results remains a challenge in the EU. Although still one of the key global manufacturers of medium- and hi-tech products, the EU is behind other major economies in terms of exports and job creation in knowledge-intensive services.” While the EC views the EU as showing a strong scientific system, even ahead of competitors when it comes to Open Science, “more efforts are needed to bridge the gap between scientific research, innovation, and the market”. The analysis calls for better framework conditions for the EU’s innovation landscape, ranging from “creating a more agile, transparent and innovation-friendly regulatory framework, reducing the EU’s skills shortage and promoting standardisation, to enhancing the funding opportunities available to the EU’s innovative enterprises”. The EC concludes that promoting a culture of knowledge valorisation in the EU’s R&I landscape remains key to strengthening the EU’s global competitiveness.
On 22 May, the EC could report on an important milestone in forging closer ties with a key global partner: The start of formal negotiations with the Republic of Korea on the partial association to Horizon Europe. An association would allow Korean research and innovation actors to participate in the programme’s collaborative calls under pillar two on equal terms with entities from the EU Member States, to access Horizon Europe funding, and to coordinate projects. Representatives from Korean authorities would participate as observers in the Programme Committees that shape the work programme of the framework programme. The negotiations will proceed in the coming months. Korea formally expressed its interest to associate to Horizon Europe in February 2022.
Meanwhile, on 30 May, the tenth round of exploratory talks on a new ‘package approach’ for the overall relations between Switzerland and the EU took place in Brussels. The EC created a political link between the overarching relations between Switzerland and the EU – and a possible association of the country to EU programmes like Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ (see SwissCore article). On the basis of the technical and exploratory talks held since spring 2022 on these overarching questions, the two parties confirmed yesterday that progress had been made in a number of areas, like in the areas of state aid and the free movement of persons. However, further details will have to be clarified after June as the Swiss federal department of foreign affairs announced: “Even after the discussion in the Federal Council at the end of June, talks with the EU will continue in order to clarify open questions with a view to a possible future negotiating mandate”.