ISE PRESS RELEASE 18.10.2024
Publication of the high-level expert group on the interim evaluation of Horizon Europe
ISE welcomes the report “Align, Act, Accelerate” published on 16 October by the high-level expert group on the interim evaluation of Horizon Europe and to guide the evolution of the European Research and Innovation (R&I) Framework programme. In this first reaction, ISE wishes to emphasise some items we consider key for the future of the European Research Area.
ISE firmly supports the need to scale up European Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I) through a stronger framework programme with a ringfenced budget that allows for funding first-ranked project proposals throughout the programme.
ISE is pleased that the main ideas it submitted to the group are emerging in the published document:
- the promotion and demand for an expansion of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) and the European Research Council (ERC), which play an essential role in the careers of individual researchers, but also in the virtuous cycle, from the advancement of knowledge to innovation.
- the framework programme needs to cover the entire spectrum of research, technology and development which, in real life, is a continuum in an open space of continuous creativity and innovation. ISE highlights here the urgency of filling the gap of basic research in collaborative projects to ensure such a continuum and create an upwards R&I spiral.
- ISE considers dialogue between all stakeholders and joint initiatives between public and private stakeholders to be essential elements of a framework programme’s success.
- addressing the urgent need to provide respectful working conditions and career prospects to the next generation with the idea of a dedicated “Choose Europe” instrument responds to the Manifesto that the ISE published in September 2022 and tirelessly defends.
- funding all applications reviewed as excellent across the framework programme through a combination of EU Framework Programmes, Structural Funds, and Member State funds through Seals of Excellence,is a first step towards the ISE call on the need to transfer funds from other programmes to the FP when actions have been/are shifted from these to the R&I programme.
- radical simplification, user orientation and efficiency across the framework programme are essential steps, joined by the ideas to “trust first, evaluate later”, to reduce prescriptive calls and to eliminate redundant or underperforming programmes (i.e., the nine Widening programmes, each with a small budget). These reflect the ISE recommendations to increase trust and flexibility for beneficiaries and to call on policy makers to define the goals but leave the pathways to achieve them to the free choice of researchers and entrepreneurs.
ISE finally stresses the need for the EC to consult European Academic associations and Learned societies on RD&I strategies and policies.
ISE will publish a full statement in due course.
Contact: Monica Dietl, Research Director, ISE Executive Director
Links:
ISE answers to four questions from the HLG on the Framework Programmes Horizon Europe and FP10, 18 July 2024
Annex on Boost collaborative basic research, 29 May 2024
ISE Main Recommendations for Horizon Europe and FP10, 26 October 2023