2018
On 8 October, Jan Palmowski, The Guild’s Secretary-General, spoke at a public hearing on Horizon Europe (HEU) at the European Parliament. The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) held the meeting together with other stakeholders and MEPs who shed light on how to maximise HEU’s competitiveness and societal benefits.
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On 6 September, The Guild and the UK’s Russell Group co-hosted, ‘Science for Society: Opportunities for Horizon Europe’. Academic leaders and EU policymakers from the Commission and the Austrian Presidency discussed ways to ensure that the social sciences and humanities are fully integrated into Horizon Europe and why this is important.
On 4 September, The Guild and SwissCore held a joint event on climate change that brought together leading climatologists and EU policymakers to discuss the politics that hinder and enable climate action and mitigation.
The Guild has presented amendments to the Commission’s Horizon Europe proposal together with other university associations, representing the voice of millions of students and thousands of researchers across Europe.
In the wake of the European Commission’s release of its outline for the Ninth Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon Europe), 14 European associations representing universities united to respond to the proposal.
The Commission’s Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) proposal is out, and the headline figure is €100bn for research and innovation between 2021 and 2027. Yet, the Guild and other university associations called for an increase to €160bn.
Increasing the focus on the Social Sciences and Humanities
As European associations of universities, we call upon the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Council, to double the budget for research, innovation, and education in the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF).
On 14 March, the University of Ljubljana and the Guild organised a conference on widening participation and strengthening synergies in the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP9).
Our competitiveness and the way in which our societies advance both depend on our ability to innovate.