The Commission adopted a Communication on a new European Research Area for Research and Innovation

ERA is the ambition of the European Commission and European Member states to create a single, borderless market for research, innovation and technology across the EU. New actions to be undertaken in the coming years are announced in this Communication and will be implemented in the future as they intend to improve the free circulation of researchers and scientific knowledge.

With this new ERA, the Commission is willing to improve Europe's R&I landscape and accelerate the EU's transition towards climate neutrality and digital leadership. The Commission aims to create a new ERA to support the EU’s recovery from the societal and economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis and to strengthen its resilience against future crises.

The overarching goal identified by the European Commission for the new ERA is to:

• prioritise investments and reforms in R&I
  
• improve access to excellence for researchers and enable research results to reach the market and the real economy.
  

4 strategic objectives have been identified as key enablers for the completion of a single market for R&I and technology across the EU:

1. Prioritise investments and reforms in R&I towards the green and digital transition;
2. Improve access to excellence facilities and infrastructures;
3. Translate R&I results to the economy; 
4. Strengthen the mobility of researchers and the free flow of knowledge and technology.

The Commission will work towards accomplishing the above strategic objectives through 14 actions that have been identified as instrumental in realising the European Research Area.
Two proposals have been put forward by the Commission as key mechanisms to facilitate the implementation of the new ERA’s objectives:

• Member States shall adopt a Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe, a non-binding initiative which will reinforce their commitment to shared policies and principles and indicate the areas where they will jointly develop priority actions –first half of2021.
  
• The Commission will set up a European Forum for Transition, a strategic discussion forum with Member States that will support them in the coherent implementation of these four objectives–2021.
  

In its Communication, the Commission shows a strong commitment to achieving open Science in the EU by increasing and facilitating data access and data sharing beyond the research communities. Key initiatives such as the implementation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and the development of the common European Data Spaces are identified as key actions towards this objective.

Next steps

• The EU Council, the EU Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions are expected to react to this Communication in a near future.
• The feedback of these institutions will feed into the preparation work and follow-up actions of the Commission to implement the Communication.