Many of the key figures from the European research, innovation and higher education community came together with political and industrial stakeholders to back the ‘Research Matters’ campaign hosted by EUPRIO at a packed meeting in the CSIC office in Brussels on 2 October, 2024.
Scores more were watching the event online as Enrico Letta, President of the Jacques Delors Institute and former Italian Prime Minister, pledged his whole hearted support to a communications campaign aimed at winning the hearts and minds of European decision-makers for a doubling of the budget of the European Union’s next research framework programme to 200 billion euros as well as increased funding for research and development – to 3% of GDP – in the national budgets of both the EU and all European countries.
Letta, whose recent report for the EU Council and European Commission titled ‘Much More Than a Market’ calls for a revamp of the European single market and a fifth freedom, entailing the enhancement of research, innovation, and education on top of the EU’s existing four freedoms for the movement of goods, services, capital and labour, said he was “a great supporter” of the Research Matters campaign.
“I wanted to be here because the campaign that you have launched and this fantastic coalition of associations and people is exactly what we need to have. So, please use me.”
Dynamic collaboration
Gian-Andri Casutt, President of EUPRIO, opened the Brussels meeting, saying: “This campaign represents a dynamic collaboration of European universities, research organizations, funding agencies, industry partners, and communication professionals.
“Our collective mission is to highlight the indispensable role that research and innovation play in securing Europe’s future and to advocate for the necessary financial support to fuel these endeavors.”
He said Europe faced immense challenges and opportunities and it was vital that any extra funding for the EU’s upcoming research and innovation programme was ring-fenced “to maintain Europe's leadership in global research, fostering innovation, and addressing the pressing challenges of our time.”
The Research Matters campaign hosted by EUPRIO, the European Association of Communication Professional in Higher Education, has brought together an impressive array of partners, including leading European research and university associations, as well as supporters of its Open letter published on 4 June.
Speakers at the 2 October Brussels meeting included Dr Christian Ehler, the Member of the European Parliament who has played a key role in previous EU research and innovation framework programmes and was rapporteur for Horizon Europe.
Ehler was one of the first to call for a doubling of the EU’s budget for what will be the tenth framework programme (FP10). He told the meeting: “200 billion euros is not a given political figure, but mathematically if you go through the challenges we are facing and ambitions we have been formulating, we are going to fail without that.”
He said: “What worries me is that the R&D expenditure of industry is going down,” adding: “Five years ago Volkswagen was one on the top 10 most R&D spending companies in the world. Now no European (company) is left in the top 15 anymore.”
Squeezed by both sides
“So we are squeezed by both sides. We don’t have the appropriate public spending, but industry in Europe is spending less and less money on R&D.”
Turning to the discussion about whether there will be another Framework Programme in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), which will allocate resources for the period from 2018 to 2034, or whether research and innovation will be funded in a new competitiveness programme, Ehler said: “We have to see whether it makes sense to some extent to integrate research into a competitiveness context”.
He said some wanted to “create a super budget, where all is squeezed in” and the Commission has “complete flexibility to decide more or less what is innovation and where to put their money in,” but he suggested: “That would most likely lead to a ring-fenced programme because that would lead to a co-decision and the majority in parliament is in favour of a ring-fenced programme (for research and innovation).”
Ehler said “There are extensive discussion right now and it will be decided in the next weeks whether we have a stand-alone programme or we won’t.”
Dr Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council (ERC) also addressed the meeting and said she wished she knew how the next budget would be handled, but added that what is important is to continue the successful examples of what is working, including the ERC and the European Innovation Council (which supports start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises).
She emphasised that the reason the ERC had been successful was because “the ideas come from the scientists”.. .
“That’s the philosophy. Researchers on the ground know where the problems are and what is possible in terms of problem-solving.”
Leptin said giving grants to the best experts and investing in the best research infrastructures is the best way of competing with the rest of the world and making Europe more competitive.
The final speaker giving the industry point of view at the Brussels meeting was Pascal Metivier, Head of Research and Innovation at Syensqo, a Belgian multinational materials company founded in 2023 as a spin-off from Solvay.
Prepare for tomorrow
He said his company had 2,000 scientists and its products were used in 85% in today’s aircraft and 50% of electric cars, but it constantly needs to be “doing top science to prepare for tomorrow” and remain competitive.
His company works closely with the ERC, but it goes to where the best labs and researcher are and this meant Asia more and more.
“We work with academia to upstream our research and we rely on basic research,” he said, adding that what they looked for all the time was “quality”.
The Research Matters campaign will build on the findings of the recently published Draghi Report on "The future of European competitiveness", which warned of a slowdown in productivity growth since the early 2000s in Europe, attributing this to a lack of investment in research and innovation and persistent skills shortages.
Among those welcoming the campaign is Ludovic Thilly, Coimbra Group Executive Board Chair, who warned that alarm bells are now ringing about cuts to research and innovation budgets.
Robert-Jan Smits, President of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and Chair of EuroTech Universities Alliance is another Research Matters supporter. He called on EU member states and presidents of Europe’s institutions, to act now, saying: “Knowledge is Europe's most valuable resource since it generates jobs, economic green growth and prosperity.”
Final word to Enrico Letta, who told the meeting on 2 October: “I know we are in Brussels (but) everything starts and ends with the European Council, the Council of Ministers and national fences (or obstacles).
“So find a way to have national advocacy if you want ministers to feel there is pressure from the bottom. By definition they are sensitive to the ground and to the pressure of voters and stakeholders.”
To sign the Research Matters campaign letter and see who is already supporting the campaign, see here.
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