The Guild’s Interim Evaluation of Horizon 2020 for download
New knowledge creation is key to Europe’s cultures, societies, and economies. Europe’s potential for research and innovation is reliant upon its universities as the environment in which scientific knowledge is gained and future innovators are educated. The Guild makes nine propositions for how Horizon 2020 and its successor programme could further strengthen excellence in research and innovation across Europe. Through its position paper, the Guild challenges the European Union significantly to increase spending on frontier-led science and on innovation, and in this way strengthen the added value of the EU to its citizens.
To optimize synergies with the Horizon 2020 and its successor programme, the Guild also demands more targeted spending of structural funds on research and innovation. It also calls for the creation of a high-level expert group to identify barriers to excellence in low performing regions, to articulate where national reforms are needed and how EU funding mechanisms can be improved correspondingly.
The Guild emphasizes the need for enhanced funding for collaborative research across Europe to better realize the potential of new knowledge creation across boundaries. And it points out the need for improved success rates for applicants to ensure the best researchers and innovators continue to engage with European funding across the EU.