While European ministers discussed the European Competitiveness Fund (see other news), the European University Association (EUA) and the League of European Research Universities (LERU) voiced their concerns about the funding of basic research on Monday 29 September.
In a statement, the LERU says it is clear that under Article 182 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU), the European Competitiveness Fund cannot finance research and innovation (R&I) activities. Only the European Research Council (ERC) will explicitly fund basic research, which corresponds to a budget of just €31.5 billion over seven years.
“The forthcoming Commission communication on the ‘tight connection’ between FP10 and the ECF will be a crucial document for the negotiations on both regulations”, said LERU Secretary General Professor Kurt Deketelaere. “It is therefore regrettable that it has not yet been published, as its absence leaves far too much room for speculation”.
For its part, the EUA revealed in its analysis that this ‘tight connection’ “raises serious concerns about whether the programme’s much-valued autonomy and integrity will be safeguarded in practice, while the removal of the civilian clause creates ambiguity around dual-use research”. The European Research Ministers will debate this issue on Tuesday 30 September (see EUROPE 13718/13).
Read the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/inx
Read the analysis: https://aeur.eu/f/iny (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)