The European Court of Auditors (ECA) published on Wednesday 15 June an assessment of the measures put in place by the European Commission to widen the participation of less performing States in European research and innovation programmes (Horizon 2020 followed by Horizon Europe) and their implementation.
These measures aim to reduce fragmentation between States. They aim to break the vicious circle of how opportunities in the multi-annual research and innovation (R&I) funding programmes are allocated. The award is made by selecting the best projects. The participating States with the least developed ecosystems are also the least competitive in the selection processes for these programmes and are thus deprived of European support to be better equipped.
The report focused on the “Teaming” initiatives to support centres of excellence and the “ERA Chairs”, which work to make research institutes more attractive and improve their capacity. The report also examines the role of the Policy Support Facility, which was set up to help Horizon Europe participating States design, implement and evaluate reforms that improve the quality of their R&I investments, policies and systems.
“Our report focused more on the development and adequacy of the measures with their objectives than on their efficiency and effectiveness, as these measures are new and their implementation is ongoing”, said Ivana Maletić, who supervised the report. The measures have been strengthened under Horizon Europe.
Governments are primarily responsible for the level of private or public investment in R&I, the report insists. For the States concerned by these measures, the issue is to “change their R&I ecosystem”, Ivana Maletić stresses, according to which they must increase their efforts in driving reforms and increasing investment in R&I and raise these issues in their political priorities.
“This was kind of a limitation of the report”, stressed a senior ECA auditor; “as we are only addressing the Commission, there are going to be limitations. As we are auditing the Commission, it is the subject of our recommendations and we also carry a message. It is up to those who are targeted by the message to do what they need to do”.
Overall, the Court of Auditors concludes that the measures are appropriately designed to address the factors limiting State participation. The auditors identified several areas for improvement in the development of the measures and especially in their implementation and evaluation.
The ECA notes that the measures benefit too few of the better connected countries. Team and ERA Chairs project leaders face difficulties in finding additional funding, the payment of funds is sometimes significantly delayed and the administrative burden is high. They face difficulties in recruiting and retaining researchers. Sustainability of projects is also difficult to achieve through the generation of research income.
The Court of Auditors therefore addresses five packages of recommendations to the Commission: - strengthen the use of the Policy Support Facility; - ensure a more balanced participation in the measures of the States covered by these measures; - facilitate the arrival of funds and their timeliness; - improve the capacity of project leaders to exploit their results; - establish a more detailed and specific framework for assessing the long-term impact of measures.
The new Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) will provide opportunities for further reform and investment in R&I, but for the ECA it is too early to estimate their effective implementation.
The report will be presented to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/255 (Original version in French by Emilie Vanderhulst)