Following her re-election in June, on Tuesday European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen unveiled her list of designate commissioners and their portfolios. For universities, was it worth the wait?
Overall, yes.
To begin with, the current portfolio for research, innovation and higher education is split into two. Ekaterina Zaharieva, the Bulgarian nominee, would become commissioner for startups, research and innovation. Meanwhile, Erasmus+ and the European Education Area would be led by executive vice-president Roxana Mînzatu.
Combining education and research has its advantages, but it has proved challenging to foster synergies between the two. The previous research and education commissioners, Mariya Gabriel and her successor, Iliana Ivanova, promoted such synergies through the European Universities initiative or events like the Education and Innovation Summit of 2022. But, in practice, cutting through the differing funding logic of Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe made lift-off hard to achieve.
In fact, looking at each commissioner-designate’s priorities and positions, universities have real grounds for optimism.
Razor-sharp focus
In her ‘mission letter’, von der Leyen tasks Zaharieva with expanding the European Innovation Council (EIC) and European Research Council (ERC). The support for such a move—both from the R&D sector and from sources such as last week’s Draghi report—is overwhelming.
Zaharieva is also charged with supporting the next generation of European researchers. But it is remarkable that von der Leyen mentions the European universities initiative in this regard and not the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
The MSCA have been superb at fostering high-quality research, mobility and collaboration with industry. Why single out the EIC and ERC, and ignore the achievements of the MSCA?
Zaharieva will lead on the next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10), and focus on other EU priorities, notably the creation of a European AI Research Council, a life sciences strategy, research security, and international R&I collaboration through the Global Gateway.
In short, Zaharieva’s mission letter makes clear a razor-sharp focus on research and innovation—given which, putting ‘startups’ first in her job title is at best bizarre and at worst misleading.
Overlapping portfolios
Crucially, research and innovation feed into the portfolio of designate executive vice-president (EVP) Henna Virkkunen. Her mission to boost AI brings the AI Research Council into her remit, and her brief includes frontier technologies such as quantum computing and space, not to mention the EU’s digital transformation.
In addition, the mission letter for Stéphane Séjourne, designate EVP for prosperity and industrial strategy, charges him to put a focus on fundamental research and disruptive innovation at the centre of his portfolio.
Similarly, higher education has moved up the political food chain, as part of Mînzatu’s portfolio as EVP for people, skills and preparedness. Mînzatu will focus on the Erasmus+ student mobility programme and the European Education Area, with its key strategic priorities including the European Universities initiative and European degree.
Ambitious goals
Together, the EVPs can make the case for ambitious budgets for research and innovation, against many competing demands. If the EU is to take the Draghi report seriously the Commission must demand—and achieve—a budget for FP10 double that of Horizon Europe's €95.5 billion, accommodating the much-needed boost to the EIC and ERC.
Erasmus+ also needs a significantly larger budget. Funding for European University alliances, which comes from its budget, is, frankly, insufficient at both EU and national levels.
The parts of Erasmus+ relevant to universities, which account for around one-third of its budget, work well. But to sustain current levels of student mobility, this funding stream will have to treble by 2027.
Von der Leyen’s instruction for Zaharieva to propose an ‘ERA Act’ to write the ‘fifth freedom’ of researchers and knowledge into law also brings a real potential to make a step-change in the European Research Area.
The act’s priorities will require careful framing to get member states onside. Moreover, Zaharieva and her colleagues must persuade governments to boost their R&I budgets significantly in pursuit of the longstanding commitment to spend 3 per cent of EU GDP on R&I. The EU cannot do this alone.
Stronger together
Beyond their own portfolios, Zaharieva and Mînzatu will need to work closely with other parts of the Commission.
For instance, research, innovation and skills are central to the responsibilities of the commissioner-designate for health and animal welfare, Olivér Várhelyi. His remit includes the fight against cancer, antimicrobial resistance and the European health dataspace.
And given that Africa is prioritised again in the portfolio of Jozef Síkela, commissioner-designate for international partnerships, the new commission should mount a collective push for equitable partnerships in research, innovation and higher education, in a deeply unequal world.
If the next Commission enables universities to help achieve mutuality with a continent whose population will reach 2.5 billion by 2050, we will all win.
Look outwards
As universities and the research sector work with the Commission to make the strategic case for what we do, we must maintain our critical distance. We must also insist that collaboration makes us stronger within and beyond the EU.
That includes highlighting that the EU’s political priorities, which are not that different from its immediate neighbours, are best achieved with those neighbours. Intimate connections with researchers and educators in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the UK need to be harnessed, not severed.
It also means insisting on a programme that, for all consideration of the EU’s priorities, maintains and strengthens its global reach and its focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. If the EU is serious about the Green Deal, it must address the social, economic and environmental consequences of climate change at a global scale.
It is hard to think of a time when research, higher education and innovation has been more central to the Commission’s ambitions. For the future College of Commissioners, it will be critical that a shared vision of research, innovation and higher education is well coordinated and overcomes rivalries, to ensure the sum of the College is bigger than its parts.
Related publication:
The Guild's vision for FP10 - Beyond Horizon: creating an ambitious framework programme for Europe's R&I excellence
This article was originally published by Research Professional.
Jan Palmowski
Secretary-General of The Guild – A contemporary historian, he started his career at the University of Oxford before moving to King’s College London where he taught European politics and EU integration. He was Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Warwick from 2013 to 2017. In this blog space, Prof. Palmowski engages with some of the wider questions around research, education, innovation and the EU. The views expressed here are his and not those of The Guild.