A new position paper presents the priorities of European industry in research and innovation: more collaboration, smarter regulation and a skilled workforce.
As the new European Commission (EC) begins to form and the newly elected European Parliament (EP) ramp up their activity, European industry has laid out their priorities for research and innovation in the new political cycle.
The position paper by BusinessEurope, an association of national business federations, gives an overview of the European research and innovation landscape as it currently stands in a global setting, and puts forward policy recommendations for the EU institutions to focus on. It affirms research and innovation as a societal imperative, to address both the major global challenges that we currently face and the need for European companies to stay competitive in the global market place. The paper then lays out how to ensure Europe stays at the forefront in strategic industrial sectors by targeting policy development within specific priority fields.
Based on a consultation of BusinessEurope’s membership and a survey of European companies of all sizes, the paper concludes that businesses prioritise action in particular policy areas. Above all, they call for more research and innovation funding (the top priority for 35% of respondents) and more innovation-friendly EU regulation (28%). Fiscal instruments (13%), access to skills (9%) and R&I collaboration (7%) are further common priorities.
The urgency of such policy action for companies is indicated by the strong and increasing R&I investment among European businesses. They already account for 66% of total European R&D expenditures (in 2017). An impressive 88% of surveyed companies plan to increase their research, development and innovation (RDI) investments in EU-EEA countries over the next 5 years. A notable 93% of them have increased their share of RDI investments dedicated to collaborative projects compared to five years ago. They collaborate mostly with universities and research transfer organisations (RTOs), and strongly support the European leadership in R&I Public Private Partnerships.
The priority fields for future policy action include more and smarter public investments, innovation-friendly regulations, investment in skills (especially digital), and enhanced collaboration. Some proposals are for smarter implementation of existing policies and others call for more ambitious decisions and brand-new initiatives. The paper makes little mention of basic research, but makes an explicit call for 60% of Horizon Europe budget to be dedicated to Pillar II (Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness), which enables collaborative RDI projects in key industrial areas. It also mentions the European Innovation Council (EIC), which should aim to address the infamous “valley of death” in scale-up financing and adopt a strong innovation ecosystems approach.
The BusinessEurope position paper has been followed by a Joint Statement from 93 European R&I stakeholder organisations (including BusinessEurope) calling for an ambitious Horizon Europe Programme. It supports increasing the budget to €120 billion (in 2018 prices, as demanded by the EP), 60% of which should be dedicated to Pillar II in order to build partnerships among a wide variety of European RDI actors and to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals.