The Competitiveness Council discussed the specific programme of Horizon Europe and made commitments to move ahead swiftly.
For the last time before the European elections, the Competitiveness Council held a debate on the next framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon Europe, on 19 February. The meeting’s aim was to provide political guidance to the technical teams to wrap up the negotiations on the specific programme implementing Horizon Europe (Specific Programme). Next to the Regulation establishing Horizon Europe that describes the objectives and principal line of action of Horizon Europe, the Specific Programme describes its content and thematic orientation. The Council reiterated its position that the Specific Programme should be based exclusively on Article 182 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) compared to the European Commission (EC) proposal, which included Article 173 TFEU because of the focus of parts of Horizon Europe on close-to-market activities. The decision of the Council would mean that the European Parliament (EP) will not have formal decision power on aspects such as the comitology, the strategic research and innovation plan and the definition of missions. Nevertheless, several Member States voiced the willingness to consult the EP on the Specific Programme in order to reach a balanced compromise on all aspects of the framework programme. Besides the specific programme, the meeting focused on missions and partnerships as well as the European Innovation Council (EIC).
Missions are a new concept in Horizon Europe targeting global challenges with clear impact indicators and should help steer research and innovation activities under pillar 2 ‘global challenges and industrial competitiveness’. The aim is to increase the impact of public funding, foster the outreach to citizens and raise the visibility of European science, research and innovation. For the first of these missions, the Member States agreed on a preliminary list of areas, wherein these could be launched. In addition, they emphasised that they want to be actively involved in the process of identifying future potential mission areas. The current list for missions includes:
- Adaptation to Climate Change, including Societal Transformation;
- Cancer;
- Healthy Oceans, Seas and Coastal and Inland Waters;
- Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities;
- Soil Health.
In addition, the Council reached an agreement on areas for partnerships that comprise:
- Faster development and safer use of health innovations for European patients, and global health;
- Advancing key digital and enabling technologies and their use, including but not limited to novel technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum technologies;
- European leadership in metrology including an integrated metrology system.
- Accelerate competitiveness, safety and environmental performance of EU air traffic, aviation and rail.
- Sustainable, inclusive and circular bio-based solutions.
- Hydrogen and sustainable energy storage technologies with lower environmental footprint and less energy-intensive production.
- Clean, connected, cooperative, autonomous and automated solutions for future mobility demands of people and goods.
- Innovative and R&D intensive small and medium-sized enterprises.
As the areas for institutionalised partnerships cover rather broad thematic fields, it is possible that more than one partnership is set up per area.
Finally, the Council discussed the EIC and its delineation with other innovation-related instruments like the European Institute of Technology (EIT) with its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), VentureEU and InvestEU. Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, explained that the EIC should bridge the gap between the idea generation and the prototyping phase, which is under Horizon Europe supported by the EIT-KICs or through Proof of Concept grants of the European Research Council (ERC), and the more mature phases where projects/companies can tap on capital awarded by the private sector. The EIC should focus in particular on high-risk projects that could scale up rapidly and become European champions in the world market. According to the compromise achieved in the interinstitutional negotiations (trilogue) on the Regulation establishing Horizon Europe, the EIC will support all kinds of innovation, from incremental to disruptive and will also offer grant-only support in certain cases.
Commissioner Moedas welcomed the progress made in the negotiations on both legislative files on Horizon Europe and recalled that one needs to move fast now with the elections ahead. Several Member States stated that a partial general approach (PGA) on the specific programme should be reached as soon as possible, at the earliest in March.