Among the eleven recommendations of the expert group led by former European commissioner Pascal Lamy is the doubling of the funding allocated to the research and innovation framework programme in the next multi-annual financial framework.
“Doubling the overall budget of the post-2020 EU research and innovation programme is the best investment the EU can make”, states the report that was presented in Brussels on Monday 3 July at a conference on the contribution of research to the shaping of the future of Europe. The Horizon 2020 programme currently receives funding of €80 billion, close to 8% of the Community budget.
The minimum that should be done is to allocate €120 billion in funding, argued Lamy. He said that this figure was no more than the minimum required to maintain the average annual growth rate (+6.5%) of the Horizon 2020 programme.
Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas suggested that, with funding restricted to 8% of the Community budget, it will not be possible to meet the challenges of tomorrow. In this marathon, Europe has to be able to run as fast and for as long as the others, he said, citing competitor countries such as South Korea and the United States.
The remit of the expert group was to identify the areas on which Europe should focus its research. “We are at the forefront on wind power, a simple, easy technology, but it’s annoying to be lagging on hydrogen”, he noted. He highlighted the difficulty in Europe of turning research products into viable commercial applications. “We’re good at doing science with money but not very good at making money with science.” In the view of Commissioner Moedas, the EU is clearly lagging behind in the digital field. He said that the next framework programme should include digital matters in all fields of research.
Brexit. Lamy said that, “to limit the damage” caused by the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, a special arrangement should be found with the UK that allows it to take part in the new programme, just Norway, Switzerland and Israel have successfully done.
The report also highlights the need to ease European competition rules with regard to public funding of research when public money draws benefit from the connection with the EU research framework programme. Internationally, a dialogue needs to be opened on how to achieve a level playing field on public aid to research. Otherwise, the result will be disputes of the Airbus-Boeing type, Lamy, a former head of the World trade Organisation, said.
The report (in English) can be found at: http://bit.ly/2sEIMKP (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)