On Friday 19 January, the European University Association (EUA), the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO) and Science Europe published an open letter to the European Commissioner for Innovation, Iliana Ivanova, ahead of the drafting of the next European R&I Framework Programme.
The associations stress the need to guarantee a solid and sustainable budget, with a degree of flexibility to ensure that the next framework programme maintains ambitious objectives.
The signatories point out that there is still an investment gap in research and innovation (R&I) compared with other regional blocs, particularly the United States and China.
They point out that MEPs, notably Christian Ehler (EPP, German) and Maria da Graça Carvalho (EPP, Portuguese), had stressed the need to increase the budget for this framework programme by €200 billion in order to equip the EU to meet societal challenges, support collaborative R&I efforts between Member States and leverage private investment.
The signatories deplore the instability of the R&I framework programme budget and the transfers of the R&I budget to other objectives. They believe that the programme budget should be isolated and that any new priorities should be accompanied by additional financial resources.
Finally, the associations also recommend rebalancing the support given to the different stages of the R&I continuum and strengthening synergies with other EU programmes, as well as with regional and national programmes.
Link to the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/ahh (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)