On Monday 17 October, the European Commission and the United States signed an agreement to make it easier for US and EU researchers to work together on projects financed by the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020.
The agreement was signed by EU Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas and US ambassador to the EU Anthony L. Gardner at a ceremony at the European Commission in Brussels. It simplifies projects carried out jointly by EU researchers receiving European subsidies and US researchers who do not receive subsidies from the EU but who receive financing from agencies or institutes in the United States.
Joint research can now be carried out without complying with Horizon 2020’s grant agreement governing questions of liability, ethics, integrity and dissemination of results. US researchers will therefore no longer be required to sign the grant agreement before working with their European colleagues. Other aspects of the agreement cover the research partners’ autonomy over their joint work, while respecting the rules set by the bodies subsidising them.
Questioned at the end of the ceremony about the special treatment granted to US researchers under the agreement, Moedas said the EU needed to open up to the world and it had a special relationship with the United States. Gardner said the US and EU were "natural partners" for undertaking research together. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)