• Posted 14-Jul-2020

European universities urge the EU institutions to step up investment in research, innovation and education

Sixteen European associations of universities representing more than 800 universities have called for an ambitious long-term EU budget for research, innovation and education under the next Multiannual Financial Framework Programme 2021 – 2027.

In their issued statement, the associations welcome the EU’s approach to follow a sustainable recovery path due to the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, they point out that research, innovation and education are essential in facilitating the transition of the EU’s progress towards sustainability and resilience and that only long-term, holistic and collaborative approaches will help Europe to overcome multifaceted challenges.

In this regard, they explicitly declare their disappointment and concern by the proposed reduction of the EU’s flagship programmes for research, innovation and education, Horizon Europe and Erasmus+.  

“The current proposal for Horizon Europe falls far too short of the 120 billion euros that the European Parliament and the university community considered necessary even before Covid-19. A budget cut of more than 3% (compared to the 2018 Commission proposal) for vital instruments such as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and the European Research Council would hamper efforts towards strategic resilience. For Erasmus+, plans to double or triple funding for the programme have not been met with a lower proposal of 24.6 billion euros (2018 prices)”.

The associations further urge Europe to:

• ensure that the funding programmes support science in all areas;
• encourage and facilitate collaboration across disciplines; and
• foster timely association of interested non-EU countries to Horizon Europe.

In the meantime, they call the EU leaders to recognise the long-term benefit of strengthening investigator-driven frontier research to achieve a proper balance of bottom-up and top-down approaches, throughout Horizon Europe.

They also make reference to the EU’s recovery instrument Next Generation EU and they recommend that the funds dedicated under the instrument to research and innovation address holistically all challenges related to the Covid-19 crisis through bottom-up and top-down approaches.

Finally, they call on the Member States to proceed to a commitment to new and reinforced targets for the proportion of GDP invested in research and innovation, both for public and private funding.

To read the full statement by the associations, please click here.