26 May 2011, Ohrid

26 May 2011, Ohrid

Joint Position of the Enlargement Countries on the Joint Position of the Enlargement Countries on the Future EU Research and Innovation ProgrammeFuture EU Research and Innovation Programme

&

Joint Response of the Enlargement Countries to the EC Green Paper on CSFRI

Meeting of the Steering Platform on Research for Western Balkan Countries

Summary

• The “Enlargement Countries Associated to FP7” have manifested their opinion on the future of EU research funding in a Joint Position Paper* dated 8 February 2011. – The Joint Position Paper outlines the common problems of the region

and suggests actions to the EU for future research funding.

• EC Green Paper “From Challenges to Opportunities: Towards a Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation Funding” was published on 9 February 2011.

– The Green Paper reveals the initial orientations of public programming of research and innovation in the EU after 2013.

– With the Green Paper, the EC started a process of consultation to receive opinion from the stakeholders until 20 May 2011.

• The Enlargement Countries prepared a Joint Response to the EC Green Paper and submitted it to the Consultation.

• The Enlargement Countries Associated to FP7:– EU Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries*

• The initiative for the Joint Position came up at the Regional Dialogue Meeting held at Becici, Montenegro, in November 2010.

• Some countries engaged also in national consultations with various domestic stakeholders.

• As a result of a continous consultation among the Enlargement Countries, the initial Joint Position was developed.

Initial Joint Position of Enlargement Countries

*Due to regional and socio-economic structural considerations and very recent participation of Iceland to the EU Candidate Countries classification, the joint position excludes opinion from Iceland.


• The initial Joint Position Paper pronounced the common problems and issues of the Enlargement countries related to RTD, summarized as below

– Low national R&D funding (GERD below 1% of GDP)

– Limited research institutions capacity

– Limited administrative capacity

– Limited involvement in ERA governance structures

– Low level of SME and industry participation to research activities

– Brain drain problem, mobility of researchers need improvement

– FP7 participation relatively low compared to EU Member States and other Associated Countries

– Lack of or less developed integrated research policy / strategy

The initial Joint Position proposed a set of improvements in the future research programming of the EU, requested by the Enlargement Countries, in favor of:

– Balancing the reinforcement of research excellence with capacity building,

– Prevalence of thematically-oriented collaborative research versus challenge-oriented research

– Special measures for fostering innovation in the Enlargement countries towards the level of EU countries

– Simplification for easier and faster access to funds …


– Coordinated commitment from the EU side to diverse policy domains such as cohesion, enlargement, research, innovation

– Creating better conditions and incentives for mobility of researchers from the Enlargement countries to be integrated with the European networks

– Administrative capacity development of the Enlargement countries for better involvement in the governance structures of the ERA

– More balanced distribution of European research infrastructures as well as support in access to large European infrastructures


EC Green Paper: Towards a CSF for EU R&I

• Launched a public debate Research, business, government and civil society are called upon to engage

• Driving force Europe 2020 strategy & Innovation Union flagship initiative integration of research and innovation

• Council Conclusions on Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative “Innovation Union” (26.11.2010) called for :

– Focusing more on Europe 2020 priorities– Adressing societal challenges and key technologies– Facilitating collaborative and industry driven research– Streamlining instruments– Radically simplifying access– Reducing time to market– Further strengthening excellence


• The EU Budget Review of 2010 called for :

– Focusing on instruments with European added value– Becoming more results driven– Leveraging other private and public sources of funding– Full range of EU instruments for research and innovation to work

together in a Common Strategic Framework

• The full range of EU research and innovation funding initiatives in the current programming period (2007-2013) include the following:

– The Seventh Framework Programme for RTD (FP7)– The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP)– The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)– The Cohesion Policy funds

• Improvements proposed resulting from the lessons learnt in the current EU R&I programmes:

– Clarifying objectives

– Reducing complexity

– Increasing added value and leverage and avoiding duplication and fragmentation

– Simplifying participation

– Broadening participation in EU Programmes

– Increasing the competitiveness and societal impact from EU support


Lines of proposed changes in the EC Green Paper


Joint Response of the Enlargement Countries

• Ongoing dialogue among the Enlargement Countries after the start of the Consultation

• A Regional Dialogue Meeting was held in Ohrid on 3 May 2011 allowed the involved countries to come together and construct their joint response.

• The Joint Response focuses on the four main building blocks of the Green Paper.

• Submitted to the Consulatation on 20 May 2011.

• Enlargement countries call for genuine simplification and flexibility– Too demanding proposal writing

• Detailed explanation of each single activity

• Evaluation of scientific value vs. management & dissemination

– Discouraging budgeting and financial administration

• Covering full innovation cycle from research to market uptake:– Addressing different needs of different actors– Supporting initiatives that are close to market with

complementary funds– A more risk tolerant approach

Working Together to Deliver on Europe 2020

• Leveraging other sources of funding:

– Level of co-financing by the industry / SMEs need to be decareased,

– Leveraging of individual countries’ resources with ERA-NETs is welcome, sustainability of initiatives which have already gained recognition is called for, e.g. SEE-ERA.NET Plus

– Joint Programming Initiatives needs to be kept limited, and not become the prevailing rule

• Balance is called for between smaller targeted projects and larger strategic ones.


• Complementarity introduced in the Green Paper between CSFRI and Cohesion Policy funds:

– Differentiation between two types of capacity building activities:

– Capacity building activities certainly needs to be sustained within the future R&I programme:

• Building softer skills – immediate results – competitive

– Parallel complementarities with IPA funds is called for:

• Building hard skills – long term benefits – non-competitive

• Complementarity among different policies

– CSFRI called to be complementary also with Enlargement Policy in addition to Cohesion Policy


• Stronger focus on Societal Challenges brings to the stage Innovation Partnerships –

demand-driven nature ?

– Shall not undermine basic research

• Basic research is called to be a part of both agenda-driven and curiosity-driven activities

– Curiosity-driven research is at least as important as agenda-driven activities

• The bottom-up approach in Marie Curie actions and Research for SMEs is called to be preserved

Tackling Societal Challenges

• To address societal challenges, policy making and forward looking activites are needed within coordination actions, which are inclusive of European Research Area in the broader sense.

• The role of JRC in policy making and forward looking activities needs to be kept strategic and inclusive when addressing societal challenges.

• Link between R&I and society

– Science promotion activities to be kept

– Capacity of civil society for involvement in innovation process to be supported

– Social sciences research is expected to be preserved

Tackling Societal Challenges

• The EC Green Paper refers to The role of industry in setting priorities, public-private partnerships, the industry – innovation link, the potential of SMEs …

• Broad nature of innovation needs to be grasped– to allow non-technological innovation innovative

recombination of existing technologies– social innovation for creating a societal consciousness

for “innovation”

Strengthening Competitiveness

• SME focus regarding industry participation; in favor of schemes like:

– Research for the benefit of SMEs

– Industry – academia partnerships

– Diffusion of open, fast, light schemes easily accessable for SMEs

• Inclusive design of equity and debt based financial tools

– clustering of countries in the design of such tools,

– EC support with a risk tolerant approach

Strengthening Competitiveness

• The EC Green Paper refers to Strengthening of ERC, “building-up” excellence through Cohesion Policy funds, stregthening Marie Curie actions, reinforcing (e)infrastructures, strengthening international cooperation, non-funding measures …

• True strengthening of Europe’s science base with ERC requires a more homogenious dispersion of funds and deconcentration throughout ERA

• The distict role of future R&I programme vs. Cohesion Policy Funds and IPA for “building-up” excellence

• More sustained dialogue is called for between a triangle of DG R&I, DG Enlargement and the Enlargement Countries themsleves

• European support in development of networks between less developed regions and highly innovative regions

Strengthening ERA

• The achievements of the Marie Curie scheme in general is acknowledged

• But opportunities for career development in the Enlargement Countries needs to be improved with coordination and support actions

• The support to research infrastructures is called to be sustained:

– Particular support to e-infrastructures (imp. for the region)

– Enhanced support to potential medium infrastructures

– Preserving the encouragement for the participation of enlargement countries in networking between existing infrastructures

Strengthening ERA

• The proposed strategic approach to international cooperation needs to embrace “research cooperation for development”, among other things.

• Observer status of Enlargement Countries in several platforms needs to re-visited since they are not only Associated countries, but also Candidate and Potential Candidate countries

• As a non-funding measure to support building up excellence of ERA, the working conditions of researchers and perception of science careers needs to be improved.

Strengthening ERA

• The perspective of the Enlargement Countries

– The current integration of Enlargement Countries in the ERA – where we stand so far?

– The R&I needs of Enlargement Countries

• The European perspective

– The current crisis of Europe and the added value of the enlargement process for Europe

• The benefit of a harmonized Europe and a unified European Research Area for all

What we considered in this Joint Response?

Thank you!Thank you!

Filiz HAYIRLIFiliz HAYIRLI

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of TurkeyTurkey

[email protected] [email protected]

Documents

26 May 2011, Ohrid