European Research, Innovation and Education January 2013 – 2013/01

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Contents

SEEN FROM BRUSSELS

Knowledge put on global agenda in Davos 2

RESEARCH

Human Brain Project and Graphene win 3

FOCUS: Implementing research infrastructures 4

> Publications 5

European Commission looks for expert advisors for Horizon 2020 5

26 ERC advanced grants for Swiss institutions 5

Science Europe highlights role of SSH in Horizon 2020 5

INNOVATION

Europe takes action to boost entrepreneurship 6

FOCUS: Achievements of JTIs 7

> Publications 9

Public Consultation on protection of Business know-how and research rises 9

Public Consultation on energy technologies and innovation 9

EDUCATION

DOSSIER: MOOCs conquering Europe 10

FOCUS: Quality assurance in VET 11

> Publications 12

Mid-term review Bruges Communiqué 12

A new Europass instrument: ‘European Skills Passport’ 12

Comparing education systems at a glance 12

INTRA MUROS

Research and Innovation Seminar 13

30 January 2013 SwissCore 2

SEEN FROM BRUSSELS

Knowledge put on global agenda in Davos

2012 again marked the long period of

economic uncertainty in the world.

The economic crisis persisted particular-

ly in the most advanced economies, but

with an economic slowdown in economic

growth also in China, India and other

emerging markets. But the World Eco-

nomic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting

2013 ‘Resilient Dynamism’ from 23 to 27

January 2013 in Davos (Switzerland)

brought a glimpse of hope. Knowledge

played a central role on the agenda of

the about 2’500 leaders from govern-

ments, business, civil society and aca-

demia from 100 countries: How to thrive

when global competitiveness is increas-

ingly driven by talent and innovation?

How to leverage rapid and far-reaching

advances in science, technology and

medicine?

The session ‘The Global Education Im-

perative’ on Friday 25 January chaired

by the former British Prime minister

Gordon Brown attempted to answer the

following question: “How can the inter-

national community work together to

educate the over 60 million children not

in school, build the needed four million

classrooms and train the necessary two

million teachers?” The challenges are

significant: 61 million children worldwide

are not in school, 15 million children are

working and 25’000 girls per day are

kept out of education. The key conclu-

sions were that governments must

take greater ownership of educa-

tion, that an increased level of fe-

male education is critical and that

private sector engagement is neces-

sary.

Putting science, technology and in-

novation on the global agenda was a

central idea for this years’ WEF edition.

For the first time, a delegation of the

European Research Council (ERC)

represented by its President Helga

Nowotny and some of the brightest sci-

entists linked to the ERC attended the

Annual Meeting. During a dedicated ses-

sion also on Friday 25 January Nowotny

said: “The health and wealth of future

societies greatly depend on maintaining

the long-term perspectives that science

offers.”

The 2013 Annual Meeting again was

preceded with the ‘The Global Competi-

tiveness Report 2012-2013’ published

on 6 September 2012. Switzerland (1)

and Singapore (2) again topped the

ranking, while Finland (3) switched

position with Sweden (4) compared

to the 2011-2012 edition. Europe domi-

nates the top 10 with the Netherlands

(5), Germany (6) and the United King-

dom (8). The report concluded that

competitiveness divides across and

within regions continue to hold back

the economic performance.

It is thus with great interest that we

look at the European leaders from gov-

ernments, business, civil society and

academia paving the way for the next

Multi-annual Financial Framework

from 2014 to 2020 for the European

Union, particularly during the European

Council from 7 to 8 February. The advice

from Nowotny in Davos is crystal-clear

in this respect: “Investment in re-

search, education and innovation is

even more important in times of

budgetary austerity, in Europe and

elsewhere.”

WEF Annual Meeting 2013

WEF The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013 (pdf)

30 January 2013 SwissCore 3

RESEARCH

Human Brain Project and Graphene win

Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the Eu-

ropean Commission (EC) in charge of

the Digital Agenda, on 28 January 2013

officially announced the two selected

Future and Emerging Technology Flag-

ships (FET-F): the Human Brain Pro-

ject (HBP) led by Henry Makram from

the École polytechnique fédérale de Lau-

sanne (EPFL) and Graphene led by Jari

Kinaret from Chalmers University of

Technology were selected. The projects

will be awarded €1 billion each over

the next 10 years, 50% of which

will come from the EC. The rest of the

money will stem from other sources, be

them national, regional, institutional or

from the private sector.

The selection took over two and a half

years, with the first call for proposals

issued back on 20 July 2010. After the

nomination of six finalists in January

2011, the consortia had to submit a full

research proposal, including an imple-

mentation plan, which was evaluated by

a panel of 25 experts from different ori-

gins, such as leading scientists, repre-

sentatives from industry as well as sci-

ence, economy and policy advisors. The

FET-F were selected based on a set of

criteria assessing their expected impact

on science, society, technology and

economy.

HBP aims at increasing our under-

standing of the human brain. Based

on models and simulations on super-

computers, HBP could result in new

treatments for brain diseases, new com-

puting technologies and advance the

state of knowledge in neurosciences.

HBP reassembles 87 organisations,

from 23 different countries, including

the United States and China. Besides the

EPFL and the Centre Hospitalier Univer-

sitaire Vaudois (CHUV), which have a

leading coordinating role, the other

Swiss partners are the Swiss National

Supercomputing Centre, IBM, the Paul

Scherrer Institute, the Swiss Institute of

Bioinformatics and the Universities of

Bern, Zurich and Lausanne.

Graphene will look at the physical

properties of graphene, a recently

discovered material with promising

applications. Among over 74 institu-

tions in its consortium, the Swiss part-

ners are the University of Basel, the

University of Zurich, the Swiss Federal

Laboratories for Materials Science and

Technology (EMPA), the University of

Geneva and Swiss Federal Institute for

Technology Zurich.

As a start, HBP and Graphene will re-

ceive €54 million each from the 2013

Information and Communication

Technology (ICT) Work Programme

of FP7. For the years 2014 and on-

wards, the financing will come from the

next Framework Programme for Re-

search and Innovation (Horizon 2020).

In the coming months, the consortia will

negotiate their grant agreement with the

EC and the ramp-up phase will start in

September 2013. Also, an ERA-NET will

be launched in Spring 2013 with the

purpose of identifying FEF-F topics for

joint calls between member states and

associated countries.

Kroes firmly repeated the commitment

of the EC in providing the FET-F with the

promised funding. However, the nego-

tiations on budget of the European Un-

ion from 2014 to 2020 are not finalised

and cuts might take place in the ‘Com-

petitiveness for growth and jobs’ head-

ing, under which Horizon 2020 is placed.

EC press release

30 January 2013 SwissCore 4

Focus: Implementing research infrastructures

The European Strategy Forum on

Research Infrastructures (ESFRI)

celebrated its 10th birthday on 27 Sep-

tember 2012 in Brussels. It is thus time

to have a look what ESFRI is doing right

now. Set up by the Competitiveness

Council in 2002, ESFRI brings together

representatives of the Ministers for Re-

search of the 27 member states, the 10

associated states and of the European

Commission (EC). Its mission is to:

support a coherent and strategy-led

approach to policy-making on new

and existing pan-European and global

Research Infrastructures (RI);

facilitate multilateral initiatives leading

to the better use and development of

RI, at E and international level.

The Competitiveness Council mandated

ESFRI (2004) to develop a strategic

roadmap in the field of RI for Eu-

rope. The first ESFRI roadmap was pub-

lished in 2006 with updates in 2008 and

2010. These roadmaps identify new

pan-European RI or major up-grades to

existing ones, corresponding to the

needs of European research communi-

ties in the next ten to twenty years, re-

gardless of possible location. The 2010

ESFRI Roadmap contains 48 RI requir-

ing major financial investment

(~€20 billion) and long term commit-

ment for their operation (~€2 bil-

lion/year).

The EU committed itself in the frame-

work of its flagship initiative ‘Innovation

Union’ to “By 2015 (…) have completed

or launched the construction of 60%

of the priority European RI currently

identified by the ESFRI (…)”. With this

commitment, the focus of ESFRI

somehow shifted from (scientific)

road mapping to implementing the

2010 ESFRI Roadmap.

ESFRI thus established a Working Group

on Implementation (IG) in order to:

identify and analyse the bottlenecks

for implementation of RI and propose

solutions;

support implementation regarding

governance, legal issues and access

and data policy;

stimulate communication between

scientific communities and funding

agencies;

summarise the lessons learned and

provide recommendations.

The first preliminary conclusions are that

the RI are at very different stages of

maturity, that governments are not

enough connected to the ESFRI projects,

that most projects start the preparatory

phase without (financial) commitment

and that the transition from preparatory

phase to implementation is problematic.

As the task to complete or launch

60% by 2015 is a heavy one, ESFRI

asked the Competitiveness Council to

have a closer look at its mandate. On 11

December 2012 the Competitiveness

Council emphasised “the need for re-

newing and adapting the mandate of

ESFRI to adequately address the exist-

ing challenges and also to ensure the

follow-up of implementation of already

on-going ESFRI projects after a compre-

hensive assessment, as well as the pri-

oritisation of the infrastructure projects

listed in the ESFRI roadmap.” Comple-

menting the work of the IG, the EC has

set up an Expert Group on Assess-

ment of the ESFRI projects consisting of

high level managers expert in setting up

and managing RI. This group will as-

sess the financial and managerial

maturity of the RI. The work of the IG

and the Expert Group will feed into the

report of ESFRI to the Competitiveness

Council on the ambitious 60% target.

ESFRI website

2010 ESFRI Roadmap (pdf)

> RESEARCH

30 January 2013 SwissCore 5

> Publications

European Commission looks for expert advisors for Horizon 2020

On 28 January 2013, the European Commission

(EC) published a call for expressions of interest for

the Advisory Groups for Horizon 2020. The adviso-

ry groups will provide expertise on the content of

the work programmes, identify gaps therein and

assess their overall coherence. The EC looks for

leading experts in all areas of Horizon 2020, from

research in the societal challenges and the Marie

Skłodowska-Curie Actions to innovation instru-

ments for small and medium enterprise. Each of

the Advisory Groups will be composed of 20 to 30

members. Gender and geographical balance will be

taken into consideration and the EC has an-

nounced that at least 40% of the group members

must be women. The EC sets as well the focus on

multi-disciplinarity. The experts will be appointed

for two years, with the possibility of a renewal of

their mandate for another two years. The call is

open to scientists as well as members from the

private sector and civil organisations. On the same

day, the Search Committee of the European Re-

search Council (ERC) in charge of identifying the

next ERC President (see Synopsis December 2012)

issued a call for applications. Potential applicants

must be citizen of a member state of the European

Union. The deadlines for application are 6 March

for the Advisory Groups and 22 March 2013 for the

next ERC President.

EC call for Advisory Groups

ERC call for application for next President

26 ERC advanced grants for Swiss institutions

On 22 January 2013, the European Research

Council (ERC) released the list of grantees for the

2012 Advanced Grants (AdG) call. The AdG offer

funding up to €2.5 million to leading senior re-

searchers. In this call, 302 researchers from 24

countries were awarded a total of €680 million and

the success rate was of 13%. Switzerland hosts 26

grantees and is fifth in number of AdG awarded

per country, behind the United Kingdom, France,

Germany and the Netherlands. The successful

Swiss candidates were particularly strong in the

fields of Life Sciences (13 AdG) and Physical Sci-

ence and Engineering (12 AdG). However, only

one AdG in the Social Sciences and the Humanities

was awarded to a researcher from a Swiss institu-

tion. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of

Zurich (ETHZ) and the École polytechnique

fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) cumulate most of the

grants, with 12 principal investigators hosted by

ETHZ and 5 by EPFL.

ERC press release (pdf)

Science Europe highlights role of SSH in Horizon 2020

Science Europe - the umbrella organisation repre-

senting 51 European research funding and per-

forming organisations - released a position state-

ment highlighting the essential role of Social Sci-

ences and Humanities (SSH) in Horizon 2020 on

21 January 2013. The statement calls for a higher

involvement of the SSH research community in the

shaping of the Horizon 2020 work programmes. In

particular, it stresses the need for a stronger role

for Advisory Groups and SSH scholars therein. The

position paper welcomes the creation of a seventh

societal challenge dedicated to SSH and further

emphasises the need to embed research in SSH in

all other societal challenges. Finally, it asks for a

stronger budget for Horizon 2020 in general and

SSH in particular.

Science Europe position statement (pdf)

> RESEARCH

30 January 2013 SwissCore 6

INNOVATION

Europe takes action to boost entrepreneurship

The European Commission (EC) pub-

lished an action plan to reignite the

European entrepreneurial spirit by

removing barriers to self-employment

and to the creation of new businesses on

9 January 2013. According to research

fewer Europeans would see self-

employment as a first choice (37%,

down from 45% before the crisis) than

their counterparts in the United States

(51%) and emerging countries (56%).

Once new companies are founded, their

growth is slower in the European Union

(EU) and does not extend to the ranks

of the world’s largest companies. Still

new companies, especially SMEs,

represent an important source of

employment in the EU by creating

more than 4 million new jobs each year.

The action plan follows on the Small

Business Act (2011) and the communi-

cation on Industrial Policy (2012), which

already outlined the barriers to entre-

preneurship in the EU:

a lack of specific education preparing

for an entrepreneurial career;

difficult access to credits and markets;

legal and administrative barriers to

transferring businesses;

a fear of business failure and its con-

sequences;

general burdensome administrative

procedures in most member states.

The plan proposes actions to be taken at

European and member state level and is

based on three pillars. Firstly entrepre-

neurial education and training will be

developed on a practical level like in-

ternships and exchange programmes

with companies, also for higher educa-

tion students. The EC will cooperate with

the OECD to produce a guidance frame-

work for the development of entrepre-

neurial schools and Vocational Education

and Training (VET) institutions and en-

courage the recognition and validation of

theses trainings. The European Institute

for Innovation and Technology (EIT) will

promote entrepreneurship in higher ed-

ucation also by disseminating the entre-

preneurial university guidance in early

2013 as well as endorsing mechanisms

to support university driven business

creation (spin-offs). The EC invites the

member states to take part in these ac-

tions by adapting school and university

curricula. Second, the EC commits to

create a more favourable environ-

ment for new business founders by:

enabling better access to finance;

offering support for entrepreneurs in

crucial phases of the business lifecy-

cle;

supporting the uptake of business

opportunities offered by the digital

economy;

reducing administrative barriers to

business transfers;

harmonising and loosen bankruptcy

procedures and improve second

chances for honest entrepreneurs;

reducing regulatory and tax burden

for new businesses.

The EC’s action plan is finally based on a

third pillar, which aims at promoting

role models such as successful Europe-

an entrepreneurs, but also reaching out

to specific groups, who are underrepre-

sented amongst the entrepreneurial

population - such as women, seniors,

disabled, migrants, unemployed and

young people - offering tailor-made

support programmes and mechanisms.

An important phrase is the recognition

that Europe needs a radical cultural

change in order to reach its aim of

‘bringing about an entrepreneurial

revolution’.

EC Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan (pdf)

30 January 2013 SwissCore 7

Focus: Achievements of JTIs

In 2007 and 2008, five Joint Technol-

ogy Initiatives (JTIs) covering strate-

gic areas of aeronautics and air

transport (Clean Sky), public health (In-

novative Medicine Initiative = IMI), fuel

cell and hydrogen technologies (FCH),

embedded computing systems

(ARTEMIS) and nanoelectronics (ENIAC)

were set up under the FP7 ‘Cooperation’

Specific programme for the period to 31

December 2017. They were set up as

Public Private Partnerships (PPP) be-

tween the European Commission (EC)

and industry in the form of Joint Under-

takings (JU) following article 187 of the

Treaty on the Functioning of the EU

(TFEU). Based on the Council regulation

setting up the individual initiatives as

‘Community bodies’, they are required

to produce an annual progress report,

the latest of which has been published

on 8 January 2013. The report covers

2011, the first year in which all JTIs

operated independently after their

initial start-up phase led by the EC. JTIs

respond to the specific features of the

technological areas they operate in and

vary in their set-up and functioning.

Clean Sky aims at bringing together the

European aeronautics industry to accel-

erate the improvement of the environ-

mental impact of Air Transport Systems

(ATS) with new technological develop-

ments and demonstrators. It has a

budget of €1.6 billion, half of which is

funded by FP7 and the other half con-

sists of in-kind contributions of the con-

siderably involved industry. Clean Sky

works mainly on the basis of grants to

named beneficiaries, who receive

75% of the budget and identify specific

activities to complement their work

through targeted calls with the remain-

ing budget. The participation in each call

is high and 37% of all participants are

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

(SME) receiving 38% of the available

funds. However public bodies and regu-

latory agencies are underrepresented.

Clean Sky funds more and shorter

projects than other JTIs. Due to the

option of single partner projects, it has

the lowest average number of partners.

The countries with a distinct aeronauti-

cal industry are the main receivers of

grants amongst the EU member states.

IMI is Europe’s largest Public Pri-

vate Partnership (PPP) with an over-

all budget of €2 billion, half of which are

in-kind contributions of large industry,

gathered under the European Federation

of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associ-

ations. IMI aims at facing the challenges

of insufficient Research and Develop-

ment (R&D) investments in a field with

high technological complexity and geo-

graphically fragmented research by

speeding up the development of more

effective and safer medicine and in-

creasing the competitiveness of Europe’s

pharmaceutical industry with more col-

laborative R&D. IMI uses a two-staged

selection and evaluation procedure,

in which potential participants are invit-

ed to submit a Full Project Proposal

(FPP) after their Expression of Interest

(EoI) has been ranked and selected. It

has the lowest success rate of all JTIs

with 23.2%, the lowest number of

member states participating (15),the

highest participation of academia,

the lowest percentage of participat-

ing SME (17.7%) and the second lowest

funds allocated to SME (13.6%).

The focus of FCH is to put Europe at the

global forefront of FCH technologies by

accelerating their development, deploy-

ment and consequent marketing. It has

managed to attract the widest range of

participants, which are evenly dis-

tributed and of which a quarter are

SME receiving 22.1% of the EU funding.

This particular structure is probably due

> INNOVATION

30 January 2013 SwissCore 8

to its two types of funding schemes,

for collaborative basic and demonstra-

tion R&D projects and for coordinating

and supportive actions respectively. The

latter is particularly interesting for public

bodies and Non Governmental Organisa-

tions (NGOs), which are very well pre-

sented in this JTI. With a budget of €940

million (50% EU and 50% industry in-

kind and cash contributions) it is the

smallest of the JTIs with the highest

number of countries amongst the par-

ticipants.

ARTEMIS and ENIAC have a similar

structure, which due to the very high

average project costs of €16 million

and €23 million, involves cash funding

from the member states. These have

to be at least 1.8 times the EU contribu-

tions and industry has to match them

with in-kind activity. Industries of em-

bedded computational systems and

nanoelectronics play a major global role

and it is the consolidation and rein-

forcement of their position that is the

main objective of both JTIs. ARTEMIS

and ENIAC have budgets of €420 million

and €450 million from the EU and € 756

and €810 million from the JTI member

states (and regions) in cash as well as a

minimum of the member states’ funding

as in kind contributions by the industry.

Both use a two-staged submission and

evaluation procedure with a Project Out-

line (PO) followed by a FPP. Whereas

ARTEMIS has a very balanced par-

ticipation of research organisations,

universities and industry, ENIAC has

no participants from universities.

Their SME participation rate is at

37.9%, but ARTEMIS funding for SME

was slightly higher with 19.2% of the

budget compared to 13.3% in ENIAC. A

call for EoI in setting up pilot lines in

2011 aims at preparing ENIAC to be-

coming the preferred instrument for

implementing the Key Enabling

Technology (KET) policy under Hori-

zon 2020 by allowing higher Technology

Readiness Levels (TRL), which are cru-

cial for bridging the gap between re-

search and market.

Altogether, the overall success rate of

35.8% of organisations aiming to par-

ticipate in JTIs is seen as very promising

and their communication and visibility,

which was considered as a challenge,

has been improved. The five JTIs involve

an average of 20 EU member states,

mainly among those with an advanced

industrial environment, surrounded

by dynamic systems of SME, re-

search institutions and universities.

The most active of the associated

countries has been Switzerland, fol-

lowed by Norway and Israel. The by far

most active international partner has

been the United States. Particularly the

high participation of SME, which with

21% exceeds the FP7 target of 15%,

has led to viewing PPPs as a successful

model to be continued under Horizon

2020.

The future challenges will be to reduce

administrative burden by merging

ARTEMIS and ENIAC under a joint

structure and allowing for more flexibil-

ity in all JTIs. Continuing the improved

communication strategy, the open-

ness and accessibility for potential

beneficiaries and appropriate interna-

tional strategies are amongst the ob-

jectives for the next years.

Annual Progress Report on the activities of the JTIs (pdf)

> INNOVATION

30 January 2013 SwissCore 9

> Publications

Public Consultation on protection of Business know-how and research rises

The European Commission (EC) launched a public

consultation open until 8 March 2013 in order to

collect information on the current situation and

existing views with regard to the protection of

business and research know-how in the European

Union. Despite the existence and the important

role of patents, they have their limitations, mainly

in what can actually be patented. The enforcement

of protection laws in different countries is also

considered to be insufficient. Business solutions,

marketing data and many other trade secrets are

not patentable, even though they are a major

building block of a company’s success or downfall.

Following the public consultation, a report will be

made publicly available on the EC’s website.

EC public consultation

Public Consultation on energy technologies and innovation

As part of the preparation for a communication of

the European Commission (EC) on energy technol-

ogies and innovation foreseen for the first half of

2013, a public consultation has been launched by

the EC and is open until 15 March 2013. It aims at

gathering opinions of all relevant stakeholders

from public authorities, via research institutions

and academia, industry, utilities to private citizens.

Its purpose is to consult on possible options for a

European energy technologies policy and to re-

ceive feedback and additional ideas on the Energy

Roadmap 2050 published in 2011. All interested

stakeholders are invited to express their views in

the preparation stage of the communication.

EC Energy Roadmap 2050 (pdf)

EC public consultation

> INNOVATION > INNOVATION

30 January 2013 SwissCore 10

EDUCATION

MOOCs conquering Europe

Massive Open Online Courses

(MOOCs) are the phenomenon of 2013

in European higher education. While

online courses and distant learning are

not new, MOOCs are. With these free

and open online courses aiming at

large-scale participation, the best

universities around the world are be-

coming virtually accessible to everyone.

How do MOOCs work? They are available

on different online platforms, where an-

yone having access to Internet can reg-

ister and sign-up. Following a MOOC is

almost like taking a traditional on-site

course, with a beginning and an end.

The main difference is that MOOCs only

offer a certificate of completion, but in

most cases no credits to students. At

the beginning of each week, lectures - in

the form of short and engaging videos

recorded for that purpose - are posted

on the web and students follow them at

their own pace. The lectures are fol-

lowed by interactive exercises and sug-

gested readings and discussion forums

allow for interactions and networking

among students.

Networking is an important aspect of

MOOCs, which take roots in today’s in-

formal, networked and technology-

enabled arena. The idea of connecting

to each other to construct knowledge is

one of the key dynamics deriving from

the ‘Connectivism’ theory, i.e. the

learning theory of the digital era

according to which learning and training

is successful only if we learn how to

connect and build relevant networks.

While the first MOOCs appeared in 2008,

the ‘MOOC breakthrough’ started in the

United States in early 2012, with a high

number of American institutions publish-

ing MOOCs on three platforms: Udacity

(a start-up of Stanford University), edX

(a start-up of the Massachusetts Insti-

tute of Technology and Harvard Univer-

sity) and Coursera (another start-up of

Stanford University). To date, only

eight non-American universities

publish MOOCs (on Coursera): the He-

brew University of Jerusalem, the Hong

Kong University of Science and Technol-

ogy, the University of British Columbia,

the University of Toronto, the University

of Melbourne, the University of London

International Programmes, the Universi-

ty of Edinburgh and the École polytech-

nique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).

Have we entered a true era of virtual

education? What do they mean for the

internationalisation of higher education?

What is the added value of teaching to

many thousands of students simultane-

ously? What do they mean for the stu-

dent-teacher interaction? How can the

knowledge acquired be assessed and

certified? What impact will they have on

the European university landscape?

The Swiss Education Briefing

‘MOOCs: toward a teaching revolu-

tion?’ organised by the Mission of Swit-

zerland to the European Union and

SwissCore on 21 March 2013 will ad-

dress these questions, both in the light

of the development of MOOCs at EPFL

and of the future initiative of the Euro-

pean Commission on open educational

resources.

edX Udacity Coursera

30 January 2013 SwissCore 11

Focus: Quality assurance in VET

For the six coming months, the Irish

Presidency of the Council of the Europe-

an Union (EU) will focus on quality and

equity in education. The ‘European Con-

ference on Quality in Vocational Educa-

tion and Training (VET)’ organised by

the European Commission (EC) from 17

to 18 January 2013 - perfectly fitting

into the presidency priorities - was the

occasion to engage in a discussion about

quality assurance in VET and to reflect

on the needs for the further develop-

ment of the European Quality Assur-

ance Reference Framework for VET

(EQAVET framework). This framework

was adopted by the EU member states

in 2009 and aims at promoting the qual-

ity in VET by providing authorities with

common tools for the management of

quality.

In 2010, the Executive Agency for Edu-

cation, Audiovisual and Culture (EACEA)

issued a special call for proposals under

the Leonardo da Vinci programme aimed

at developing approaches to quality

assurance by adopting the EQAVET

framework. Five projects - coordinated

by Austria, Germany, the Netherlands,

Malta and Romania - were selected and

their results were now presented at the

conference. Although constructed along

different perspectives, the five projects

have highlighted four common chal-

lenges:

How to create a culture for quality

improvement?

How to involve stakeholders in every

step?

How to ensure compliance with exist-

ing quality assurance system?

How to make sure implemented

measures are sustainable?

Looking into the different projects, it is

interesting to note that they are indeed

quite different. For example, the Austri-

an project has developed training pro-

grammes for school quality manag-

ers and principals, thereby only focus-

ing on VET schools and colleges de-

spite the important company-based

component of the Austrian VET system.

The German project on the contrary,

broken down into ten pilot projects,

concentrates above all on the company-

based part of their VET system.

Thanks to the involvement of the

EQAVET National Reference Points in the

projects, as well as the fact that the lat-

ter are strongly related to national quali-

ty development in VET, the projects

seem to enjoy a strong national en-

dorsement and support. Moreover,

since building up an EQAVET culture is

still only work in progress in all Europe-

an countries, all five projects repre-

sent good practices which can be built

on and if relevant adapted to another

national context.

To sum up, the conference definitely

raised awareness on the need to contin-

ue the work undertaken so far on quality

assurance in VET. The too little inter-

action with the European Standards and

Guidelines for Quality Assurance in

Higher Education was pointed out. This

issue will be, among others things, ad-

dressed from 12 to 13 March 2013 in

Dublin during the ‘Conference on Quality

Assurance in Qualifications Frameworks’,

organised by Quality and Qualifications

Ireland, an organisation merging both

VET and higher education approach-

es to quality assurance. Finally, the EC

should publish an evaluation of EQAVET

by mid-2013, especially looking into the

role of indicators.

EQAVET Secretariat

EQAVET projects

> EDUCATION

30 January 2013 SwissCore 12

> Publications

Mid-term review Bruges Communiqué

On 20 December 2012, the European Centre for

the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop)

published a mid-term review of progress towards

the 22 short-term deliverables defined in the

Bruges Communiqué (2010). The report ‘Trends in

VET policy in Europe 2010-12 – progress towards

the Bruges communiqué’ points out that progress

is visible in several areas, notably in implementing

National Qualification Frameworks (NQF), quality

assurance and work-based learning, as well as

reducing early school leaving. Areas where pro-

gress has been slower, like monitoring labour

market outcomes, using incentives and the profes-

sional development of teachers and trainers, re-

quire further attention. In 2014, Cedefop will con-

duct a final review of the short-term deliverables

with a general evaluation of the strategic objec-

tives towards the Bruges Communiqué.

Cedefop report (pdf)

A new Europass instrument: ‘European Skills Passport’

On 21 December 2012, the European Commission

launched the ‘European Skills Passport’. This new

tool complements the Europass CV, bringing to-

gether a compilation of certificates validating the

experience acquired referred to in the CV. The

European Skills Passport is available in 26 lan-

guages on the Europass portal.

EC European Skills Passport

Comparing education systems at a glance

In December 2012, the Eurydice Network pub-

lished schematic diagrams representing the struc-

ture of education from primary to tertiary level for

the 2012/13 academic year in the 27 member

states of the European Union, Iceland, Lichten-

stein, Norway, Switzerland, Croatia, Serbia and

Turkey. This publication represents a useful tool

for a glimpse comparison of different education

systems).

Eurydice diagrams (pdf)

> EDUCATION

30 January 2013 SwissCore 13

INTRA MUROS…

Research and Innovation Seminar

For the 16th time, we received our Swiss

funders and partners – many of whom

are avid readers of the Synopsis – to

Brussels from 23 to 25 January for two

days full of research and innovation poli-

cy and programmes.

Participants revived old ties and made

new friends during a welcome recep-

tion with the attendance of guests from

the European institutions at the Mission

of Switzerland to the European Union

(EU). Our Ambassador Balzaretti praised

the dedication of the Swiss research and

innovation stakeholders in contributing

to the Europe of knowledge.

In a first session on the following morn-

ing, participants received a first-hand

account of the latest developments in

the adoption of Horizon 2020. Peter

Fisch from the European Commission

(EC) provided details on the negotiations

as well as Horizon 2020’s conceptual

innovations. Catriona Ward from the

Brussels office of Enterprise Ireland pre-

sented the priorities of the Irish Presi-

dency of the Council of the EU. The Eu-

ropean Parliament (EP) was represented

by Maria Da Graça Carvalho, one of the

rapporteurs in the Committee on Indus-

try, Technology, Research and Energy

(ITRE). She outlined the EP’s main con-

tributions to Horizon 2020 and drew

inspiration from her personal career as a

scientist. Danièle Rod from the Mission

of Switzerland to the EU concluded with

an outline on the Swiss association to

Horizon 2020.

Two parallel sessions focusing on two

longstanding and successful bottom-up

programmes at European level followed.

A session on EUREKA explored the pro-

gramme’s current and future presidency

priorities, especially in light of the Swiss

presidency in 2014-2015. The Europe-

an Cooperation in Science and Tech-

nology (COST) programme was scruti-

nised regarding synergies in relation

with Horizon 2020 and a personal ac-

count by a Swiss researcher showcased

the pertinence of the programme.

After enjoying a dinner hosted by Eure-

search and us, the participants started

the last day with a choice of tracks fo-

cusing on either policy or programmes.

In a session on the European Re-

search Area (ERA), attendees followed

an elucidating account of the ERA’s

emergence by Michel André, a former

adviser for research policy at the EC.

The rationale and deliverables of the

current ERA were described by Jacques

Verraes from the EC, whereas Stephan

Kuster from Science Europe and Kurt

Deketelaere from the League of Europe-

an Research Universities (LERU) pre-

sented their organisations’ contribution

to the ERA. A second session on Marie

Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

and Public-Private Partnerships

(PPP) proved equally insightful to par-

ticipants.

In the wrap-up session, the solutions of

the traditional European Research and

Innovation Expert Quiz were revealed

and several lucky winners received their

well-earned prizes. We were delighted

to welcome so many participants

from the Swiss research and innovation

community this year and hope to wel-

come everyone back for the next semi-

nar.