On 3 February 2017, the European Commission published a report entitled “Issue papers for the High-Level Group on maximising the impact of EU research and innovation programmes”.
Key
points:
- According to the report, attracting more top
global companies and boosting investment in defence are among the main
avenues the European Commission could investigate as it lays the ground
for a successor to Horizon 2020.
- This document will be used by the high-level
group of 12 experts is chaired by former director-general of the World
Trade Organization (WTO) and former EU Commissioner for Trade, Pascal
Lamy, and is charged with drawing up a vision by June 2017 for the 2021- 2028
EU research programme.
- Central to EU plans to generate more innovation
from its future research programme is the creation of the European
Innovation Council. Its role will be to help scale up more world-class
tech companies in Europe, and help innovators to more easily find support
from the EU.
- The changes to the Horizon 2020 programme’s last
two years and are meant to attract more top talent. These will include:
adopting a fully 'bottom-up' approach so that innovative projects that cut
across sectors and technologies become more eligible for support as well
as putting more emphasis on financial and technical support for start-ups.
Background:
- The European Commission has set up the High Level Group of experts who will advise on how to
maximise the impact of the EU's investment into research and innovation.
The Group is established as part of the interim evaluation of Horizon
2020, the EU's current research and innovation funding scheme (2014-20).
The experts will formulate a vision for future EU research and innovation
and draw up strategic recommendations on maximising the impact of EU's
future investment in this area. They will base their work on the available
Horizon 2020 interim evaluation results and other factual evidence such as
the results of the related public consultation, which will be launched in
October 2016.
- The European Innovation Council is to be set up by a High Level Group (HLG) of
Innovators. The HLG brings together leading personalities from across
Europe with a wide range of expertise in business innovation, including
entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors and other major players in the innovation
ecosystem. The HLG has been set up to provide a user perspective on
potential reforms to Horizon 2020 to help improve Europe's performance in
breakthrough, market-creating innovation. This Group will also provide
recommendations for a full European Innovation Council under the next
Framework Programme.
The
report can be found here.
