2024

Last week, The Guild’s Deans of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities gathered at the University of Glasgow. In their statement they stress the importance of the reassociation of the UK to Horizon Europe and its successor programmes, full empowerment of SSAH research collaborations in EU framework programmes and the urgent need for Switzerland to associate to enhance Europe’s competitiveness and resilience to better address societal challenges.

On 20 March 2024, the Ambassador of Norway to the United Kingdom, H.E. Tore Hattrem, hosted an event on the green and digital transitions jointly organised with King’s College London and the University of Oslo. The event highlighted The Guild’s latest Insight Paper “The Twin Transition Century: The role of digital research for a successful Green Transition of Society?” authored by Morten Dæhlen and supported by The Guild Senior Policy Officer Julien Chicot.

Thought leaders from science, innovation and industry gathered in Brussels on 14 March to discuss how future investments in research and innovation should be optimised for the benefit of Europe’s competitiveness and resilience as a knowledge society.

The Sandbjerg Summer school in Global History has opened a call for PhD students in Europe to participate in their upcoming summer school (19-22 June 2024).

The European Universities initiative has put universities into the policy spotlight with a promise of linking education, research, and innovation across national boundaries. In the past year the discussion has focused on ensuring the transformative nature of alliances with appropriate funding (‘Investment Pathway’). The Guild members recognise the need to provide comprehensive support to alliances. More long-term funding coupled with greater flexibility is needed. However, European funding alone will never be enough. The sustainability of the initiative will require concerted efforts of national governments and institutional commitments.

The European Commission’s recently announced package of new initiatives to strengthen economic security is highly relevant for the research and innovation sector and The Guild is committed to co-developing enhanced systems of research security with Member States and EU-level policymakers. We are dedicated to providing them with recommendations for navigating these initiatives while safeguarding international collaboration as a core feature of our research and innovation system which is indispensable for building resilience in the face of global challenges.

Eight organisations, representing key actors in the public research and higher education sectors, released an open letter today addressed to Ilze Juhansone, Secretary-General of the European Commission, and colleagues demanding the Commission prioritise research and education in its ex-ante impact assessment process.

We entered the new year with The Guild’s Vice-Presidents meeting in Brussels on 10-11 January to discuss Europe’s policy priorities for research and innovation. On the agenda were timely discussions on the European Research Area, FP10 and the European Universities alliances.