The Guild’s response to ITRE draft report on H2020 and FP9

The Guild welcomes the recommendations of the European Parliament’s ITRE Committee for the next Framework Programme, based on a careful review of how Horizon 2020 has succeeded in its mission to foster excellent science, respond to societal challenges and boost industrial leadership in Europe. The Guild strongly supports the draft report in addressing the Framework Programme as being a key initiative in supporting the development of a knowledge society that serves its citizens, with the scientific community and industry being crucial actors in the sustainable and inclusive development of Europe. The Guild agrees with the report that ambitious contributions are needed from stakeholders and Member States to achieve the target of investing 3% of the GDP in research and development in the EU by 2020. The EU has a chance to show global leadership in fostering the development of a competitive knowledge society by providing the next Framework Programme with an ambitious budget: for this, 100 billion euros for research and innovation should be a floor, not a ceiling.

The Guild makes the following remarks on the draft report:

• The Guild supports the approach that excellence should remain the core value and key evaluation criterion across the three pillars, and its unique role cannot be challenged by additional evaluation criteria.
   
• The Guild agrees that the future programme should emphasise the importance of collaborative research in addressing today’s pressing societal challenges that are often global by nature. The Guild calls for aligning the challenges addressed in FP9 with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, to increase opportunities for international collaboration as well as for science diplomacy. Producing knowledge and solutions on these challenges require strong contributions from the Social Sciences and Humanities, which need to be included in genuinely interdisciplinary projects.
   
• The Guild endorses the draft report’s focus on actions aimed at closing the participation gap between European regions in their research and innovation performance. The Guild calls for strong, innovative and effective instruments to address the participation gap and demands increased opportunities for cross-border collaboration in R&I, including through better use of structural funds.
   
• Bridging the gap between research and innovation is a crucial challenge that needs to be better addressed in FP9. Funding programmes for innovation must recognise and be inclusive to different players in the innovation ecosystems and the unique role of universities in fostering science based innovation as well as in orchestrating collaboration based on Open Innovation.

Read the entire response here