FOR NEARLY 30 years the EU has supported R&D funding through the Framework Programmes. Currently we are in the middle of the seventh and it may come as a surprise to know that it will be the last. Last week saw the deadline for submissions to an open consultation on the future of EU funding to support R&D. More than 650 written submissions were received with 11 from Ireland. There will be an open conference on June 10th in Brussels to present the results.
The reason for this change is to base funding for R&D on a clear European policy and unify the existing diverse sources. At the moment there are four major sources supporting research and innovation. First is the Seventh Framework Programme with a budget of €53 billion from 2007 to 2013. Second is the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) with €309 million. The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) has €3.6 billion. Separately there are the investments by member states made through the structural funds (€86 billion).
The Commission is now leading a drive towards a Common Strategic Framework for EU research and innovation funding (CSF). The objective is to develop a coherent set of funding instruments along the whole innovation chain; so-called research to retail.
These instruments should enable cross-Border pooling of resources to achieve critical mass and diffusion of knowledge. They should raise levels of excellence by promoting competition in research and innovation. This will increase the capacity of Europe to tackle societal challenges and strengthen competitiveness. By the way, there was an open competition for a new name that will be announced on June 10th by Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.
From a practical perspective, the CSF should simplify the whole funding process and bring together different funding strands. For example, doctoral training is now supported through the Marie Curie Actions, Erasmus Mundus, the European Research Council, general Framework-funded projects and Structural Funds. All of these have different rules, if any, for supporting PhD researchers. Within the CSF there will still be diverse funding streams but all operating within the same framework.
The online consultation was a list of 28 questions surrounding issues from the type of research funded to creating a more open and transparent process. Most importantly it framed the questions in the context of delivering EU policy, dealing with challenges to society, strengthening competitiveness, the science base and the European Research Area.
There was a national submission co-ordinated by the Advisory Science Council. This brought together perspectives from all of the funding agencies, government departments, universities, institutes of technology and the private sector. In addition to the national position, there were other submissions from Ireland including the Health Research Board, the Irish Universities Association, the Royal Irish Academy and Forfás. The national submission supports a fully complementary set of funding instruments for European research and innovation. It emphasises that an effort will be required in ensuring that the overall system is suited to the support of the full research and innovation cycle including eco-innovation, non-technological innovation and close-to-market innovation.
The IUA submission stressed that universities are unique institiutions, combining the roles of training the new generation of researchers, carrying out research across a wide range of disciplines and transferring new knowledge to address economic and social issues.
The universities in Ireland have had a very positive experience from EU-research funding through the Framework Programmes and structural funds. During the 1990s community structural funds were used to support research and research training programmes in Ireland. Participation in the Framework Programmes was vital for building international partnerships and raising the quality of research. With more than 10 years of major national investments in research some have forgotten the significance of EU funding in building Ireland’s research base. In the future, the CSF will provide a guaranteed source of funds.
By December, we will see clear proposals from the Commission on the nature of the new research and innovation funding programme. Ireland’s EU Presidency in the first half of 2013 will give us an opportunity to play a role in its final developments. From 2014 Europe will move from a set of fragmented schemes to an integrated policy-led funding stream.
Conor O'Carroll is research director in the Irish Universities Association, iua.ie Conor.ocarroll@iua.ie