On Wednesday 16 July, ten research ministers from EU member states – Spain, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Slovenia, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands and France – sent a letter to Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, stating that there is a need “to consolidate different overlapping funding programmes under direct management”.
Meeting informally in Copenhagen, Denmark (see EUROPE 13681/23), the ministers will discuss on Thursday 17 July the funding of research and innovation in the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), presented on Wednesday (see other news). This letter, initiated by Spain and Germany, aims to highlight the collaborative research programme. The ‘Pillar 2’ programme “connects research centres and companies, small companies, big companies, in order to face the challenges that we have in Europe”, emphasised Juan Cruz Cigudosa, Spain’s Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Universities, ahead of the meeting. “It’s the heart of Europe, it’s like the Erasmus programme for students”.
The letter, signed by nine ministers on Friday 11 July, was also signed by France on Wednesday. The signatories also want to “enhance venture-capital funding opportunities for start-ups and scale-ups”. They also believe that “a potential competitiveness fund must be guided exclusively by the principles of competitiveness and excellence”.
The ministers also reiterated their desire to see an autonomous ‘Horizon Europe’ framework programme for research (see EUROPE 13677/2). Andrzej Szeptycki, Poland’s Under-Secretary of State for Science and Higher Education, referred to the Warsaw Declaration underlining the importance of a stand-alone EU financial mechanism for financing science (see EUROPE 13597/20). He is in favour of combining competitiveness and cohesion.
“We are challenged in so many areas when it comes to security, when it comes to competitiveness, when it comes to actually conducting a solid green transition. So, it is my hope that the new MFF [...] will actually underline and show us a way to how we can strengthen Europe and also give us the tools to strengthen Europe in those areas”, said Christina Egelund, Denmark’s Minister for Higher Education and Science.
Read the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/hwq (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)