EU-LIFE replies to consultation on the past, present & future of the EU R&I Framework programmes 2024-2027
The European research & innovation programmes, like Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, are crucial to deliver innovative solutions for global societal problems. They constitute one of the biggest funding packages for research & innovation worldwide and they represent a critical funding tool for researchers and innovators in Europe. EU-LIFE welcomes the open debate about the past, present and future of the EU programmes of Research & Innovation 2024-2027 initiated by the European Commission with a public consultation.
"In EU-LIFE's reply to this consultation, we call the European Commission to be ambitious and realistic at the same time regarding the present and the future of research and innovation in Europe. Only this way Horizon Europe and its successor FP10 can deliver their intended impacts", said Marta Agostinho, Executive Director of EU-LIFE.
The potential role of European research & innovation programmes to address current and future challenges is indisputable. However, to achieve this potential, a longer term, more ambitious and similarly more realistic vision of Horizon Europe and its successor, FP10, is needed. EU-LIFE's reply to the consultation can be summarized as follows:
- Have more ambition: aim for long term, more impactful outcomes and less implementation-based approaches
- Be realistic about the whole scope of FP10 and its funding: stop increasing the scope of the R&I programme without ensuring that additional areas come with additional budgets
- Safeguard R&I budget from annual reallocations to elsewhere
- Develop strongly the collaborative function of FP10 for excellent research irrespective of TRLs – raise collaborative opportunities for lower TRLs compared to current Horizon Europe schemes
- Raise the significance and contribution of the ERC to R&I by allocating higher percentage of the budget to the ERC
- Invest in more bottom up, less politically driven topic calls across the whole programme
- Develop a coherent portfolio impact approach instead of aiming for too broad, to big individual projects that are unrealistic and/or too hard to implement
For the full EU-LIFE statement, please click here.
