Pact for Research & Innovation: the Foundations of the European Research Area still Valid and Unavoidable

ERC Scientific Council statement

Launched two decades ago, the European Research Area (ERA) has made limited progress. Options taken today will impact Europe's position two decades from now. This is why they cannot be wrong.

The ERC Scientific Council fully supports renewed efforts to develop further the European Research Area. The relatively limited legal powers and budget for research at EU level means that improving the excellence and efficiency of Europe's research and innovation system must result from an enhanced collaboration between the national and European levels.

In the two decades since the ERA was launched and the EU adopted its Lisbon strategy, China has managed to turn into reality its goals of advancing its role as one of the global leaders in science, strategic technology areas and industries. In its coming plan the investment in fundamental research will grow 7% annually. The United States just approved massive investments in Research and Innovation (R&I). During the same period the performance of the EU has been stagnant as the EU Research and Development (R&D) investment remains far from the 3% proclaimed target and in any case far below what is achieved by its major competitors, a number of them in Asia.

This should be a massive wakeup call for Europe's policymakers. Europe cannot afford to content itself with a routine attitude at this critical moment. Decisive actions are needed NOW, so that in two decades time we will not be lamenting that Europe is a scientific follower dependent on others for the key knowledge and technologies its citizens need. We must learn lessons from previous attempts to build the ERA. The Pact for R&I may be the last chance we have to finally meet the goals of the original ERA and cement Europe's position as a leader in research and innovation.

One of the key plans of the Lisbon strategy was to raise overall R&D investment in the EU to 3% of GDP . It remains crucial to raise Europe's level of investment in R&D in order to meet the ambitious political objectives set for addressing major transformative actions: climate change, digitalisation and health (all areas where nobody challenges that R&I are key) in an effort to make major progress towards sustainability. This requires keeping up with the level of investments made by Europe's global competitors.

Actions to support research and researchers cannot be subordinated to achieving current EU policies and priorities.

The proposed Pact risks neglecting critical foundations of the ERA. For any research funding system, it is essential to provide sufficient base funding for universities and research institutions as well as reasonable opportunities for researchers to receive the funding needed to develop their projects. The pandemic has shown in the most eloquent way that decisive tools depend on having given sufficient room earlier to frontier research. Without understanding fundamental phenomena, an effort often built up over decades at the frontier, there can be no real solutions to problems. Furthermore, solutions can come from unexpected places. Science advances as a front. New findings in one area can open up new opportunities in different areas. Putting all the resources into certain priority areas can in reality lower our chances of achieving progress, even paradoxically in the priority areas.

Widening excellence and helping to build capacity are worthy goals that are complementary to and cannot replace strengthening Europe's existing centres that have reached excellence. All these are conditions for Europe to remain attractive and competitive on a global scale. The global competition is fierce and not weakening. It concerns budgets as well as quality monitoring.

Member States need to adopt a long-term perspective. Developing a strong science base cannot be the project of a single minister or ministry. There must be buy-in across government and in the long-term by the scientific community. Too often we see a 'boom and bust' pattern in research funding and everchanging reforms as administrations change. The countries, which now enjoy good research conditions, do so only because of wise and patient investments over many years. It can indeed take many years for the key actors in a system to react to the incentives and adopt structures put in place around them, fundamentally a question of trust.

Researchers are at the heart of the research process. We must ensure that research remains an attractive career for Europe's brightest talents. A major part of this is to ensure that there is enough freedom and support for researchers to pursue their own research questions. And as a matter of great urgency we need to plot out a sustainable career path for talented young researchers who are probably the ones most hit by the restrictions introduced during the pandemic.

The ERC itself now plays a key role in the European Research Area. By creating a pan-European competition for funding and providing the conditions for researchers challenged to be daring, it has provided a benchmark for ambitious researchers, research institutions, regions and countries. This contributes to raise the level, dynamism and creativity of the European research eco-system.

Finally, we should all remember why we are trying to build an ERA together. Too often the motivation appears to be only to get resources from the EU level to complement scarce ones available at national level, moreover fragmented across 27 different systems. The EU has the talent to lead the world in R&I provided it acts together and gathers the adequate resources. Making the most of our talents and resources is ultimately the goal of maintaining a European Research Area. It has to provide the best possible foundation for heading into an increasingly unpredictable future. 

Background

The ERA was launched in 2000, the same year that the EU set itself the ambitious goal to become, by 2010, 'the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world', what has become known as the Lisbon strategy. One of the key planks of the strategy was to raise overall R&D investment in the EU to 3% of GDP(ii).

In the subsequent two decades, one major world economy has managed to turn into reality its goals of becoming a global leader in science, strategic technology areas and industries, but it is not the EU. The output of China's science system has been increasing exponentially since the turn of the century and in the last decade the quality of Chinese science has also been rapidly improving. A report published last month by the JRC (iii) estimates that China overtook the EU in producing top 1% most highly cited publications sometime around 2016 or 2017. During the same period the performance of the EU has been stagnant and EU R&D investment (at 2.19% of GDP (2018)), is still far from its 3% target and below its major competitors.

The EU has limited legal powers to legislate on research matters(iv) and the EU's research budget is a relatively small share of the national budgets(v). The Commission therefore proposed in 2000 that the Member States should voluntarily commit to a series of measures to create a European Research Area (ERA)(vi) . This would be a 'single market' in research and see the free movement of knowledge, researchers and technology to strengthen cooperation, stimulate competition and optimise the allocation of resources as well as improving the coordination of national research activities and policies (vii). It stated that, 'At the present time… it cannot be claimed that there is a European research policy… the research policies of the Member States and that of the Union are conducted in parallel but do not constitute a coherent whole.'

The ERA was relaunched in 2007and 2012 with a new roadmap in 2015. In 2007 the main aims were to ensure: an adequate flow of competent researchers; world-class research infrastructures; excellent research institutions; effective knowledge sharing; well-coordinated research programmes and priorities; and a wide opening of the European Research Area to the world(viii). By 2012 the aims had become: more effective national research systems; optimal transnational co-operation and competition; an open labour market for researchers; gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research; and optimal circulation, access to and transfer of scientific knowledge(ix).

In December last year the Commission published its latest set of proposals for the ERA(x). The Communication and the accompanying Staff Working Document(xi) set out the main achievements of the ERA since 2000 while also setting out areas where progress had been more limited. The Communication states that 'the traditional 'single market' elements of the ERA' remain highly relevant but proposes to re-orientate the ERA towards achieving current Commission policies and priorities and to widening excellence. One of the main measures proposed for achieving the new goals is for the Commission and the Member States to set and implement strategic priorities by means of a Pact for R&I in Europe. The Pact is due to be finalised in June this year.

Stakeholders have generally supported this renewed effort to strengthen the ERA but have expressed serious concerns about re-orientating the ERA away from strengthening the European science base and towards achieving EU policies and priorities, what they see as a lack of consultation with universities and the academic community, and the non-binding nature of the proposed measures(xii)(xiii)(xiv).  

(i) The 3% objective: a brief history

(ii) The 3% objective: a brief history

(iii) China overtakes the EU in high-impact publications, April 2021
What Do China's Scientific Ambitions Mean for Science-and the World? April 2021

(iv) Under the EU Treaties, the EU shares competence with the Member States in the area of research, technological development and space. The EU has competence 'to carry out activities, in particular to define and implement programmes; however, the exercise of that competence shall not result in Member States being prevented from exercising theirs'.

(v) Funding from Horizon Europe will be around 4.5% of EU27 total research expenditure and around 15% of EU27 total government research expenditure in the coming years. EU27 GERD (total spend) for 2019 was €307bn. EU27 GBARD (government spend) for 2019 was €93bn. The budget for Horizon Europe will average around €14bn per year for 2021-27.

(vi) Towards a European research area, January 2000

(vii) Summary of the aims of the first ERA proposal.

(viii) The European Research Area (ERA): new perspectives, April 2007

(ix) A Reinforced European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth, July 2012

(x) ERA summary page
Communication: A new ERA for Research and Innovation, September 2020

(xi) Staff Working Document: A new ERA for Research and Innovation, September 2020

(xii) An ERA Transition Forum and Pact for R&I without direct involvement of universities? Please try again! April 2021

(xiii) The EU's emerging Pact for Research and Innovation should meet the expectations of the research sector, May 2021

(xiv) An ERA for Excellent Research: Science Europe's Input to the European Commission Consultation on the Pact for Research and Innovation, May 2021

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