EARTO recommends a bolder investment strategy for European RD&I Policy after 2020

The European Association of Research and Technology Organizations – EARTO, which INL is a member of, just issued a document with recommendations for the investment in Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I) for the period after 2020.

Today, European leaders have the opportunity to define Europe’s Future: delivering on our key societal, environmental, and economic challenges. For that, the current European Council’s discussions on the next long-term EU budget (MFF) are of utmost importance: we need a future-oriented budget that will enable the EU to deliver on its ambitions.

The European RD&I-related policies post-2020 will be essential to build a prosperous, safe, inclusive and sustainable future for the next generations. Accordingly, EARTO and its members have put forward a set of EARTO Recommendations for European RD&I policies post-2020.

EARTO represents more than 350 Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) from all over Europe and beyond. As key actors in the European RD&I ecosystem and innovation-driven strategic value-chains, RTOs will be key actors of what many see as the next production revolution, yielding cheaper and cleaner energy, new methods transforming manufacturing and services, and novel responses to societal and environmental challenges. RTOs also have a prominent role in EU RD&I-related programs and policies. RTOs are therefore very well positioned to provide the following concrete recommendations to EU policymakers to develop impactful post-2020 RD&I-related policies in Europe:

1. Boost public investments in RD&I as a key driver of prosperous and sustainable growth, recognizing that Europe’s technological capabilities will be the decisive strategic factor to build Europe’s future. Concrete and ambitious targets of raising RD&I investments aiming to deliver impact for society need to be set at EU, national and regional levels. Effective complementarity and practical synergies between EU funded programs should also be ensured.

2. Foster cross-border RD&I collaboration as the solution to jointly face the global societal & industrial challenges of today, especially through the pillar II of Horizon Europe. This includes ensuring funding for medium-term strategic pre-competitive technology development and supporting the continuity of public-private partnerships, both essential to turn promising basic research results into technologies with industrial maturity.

3. Support a European RD&I ecosystem approach along strategic value chains, boosting technology co-creation and (large & small) industry’s uptake of innovative products and services. For this, the development and scaling-up of key enabling technologies are essential, for both breakthrough and incremental innovation, in all industrial sectors (not only digital). This will require the set-up of an ambitious EU strategy on technology infrastructures, targeted support to SMEs, and the creation of deep-tech start-ups in Europe (incl. with the European Innovation Council’s support).

4. Ensure the right framework conditions to stimulate knowledge and technology co-creation in Europe and prevent the creation of unwanted regulatory barriers hampering European innovation capacity. Taking into account the specificities of the RD&I sector in the revised EU state aid rules for RD&I will be key. In addition, a balanced approach needs to be fostered between the EU Open Science and the Intellectual Property policies, focusing on the optimum dissemination and exploitation of research results.

EARTO and its members remain of course ready to further discuss these recommendations with the European Institutions’ representatives in continued open dialogue.

Follow this link to read the full EARTO Recommendations for European RD&I Policy Post-2020