Parliaments wants more solidarity in research funding

By Tania Rabesandratana

Research Europe

14-09-2011

The European Parliament wants the follow-up to Framework 7 to tackle “significant and growing inequalities” between European countries and regions.

The Parliament’s response to the European Commission’s Green Paper on future research and innovation funding, adopted on 30 and 31 August, says that although the European Union’s research funding has been increasing, the money remains concentrated in countries and areas that already perform well, while weaker ones are under-represented.

“Public money should go to the areas where there are major difficulties,” says Marisa Matias, the Portuguese left-of-centre MEP who drafted the report (see page 13). “In the private sector, we should focus on small businesses, and we should also promote convergence between research institutions.”

Following the adoption of its response, the Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee (Itre) is gearing up to defend its views in the coming tug-of-war between EU institutions over the next Framework Programme. The Commission wants to continue to spend money on boosting top industries and “the excellence of Europe’s scientific and technological base” in its proposal for a Common Strategic Framework to replace Framework 7 in 2014.

But EU funding must also create a “stairway to excellence” for weaker states and regions, says Christian Ehler, a German centre-right MEP who sits on Itre.

The report requests setting up a programme for small and medium-sized industries “conceived as a specialised branch of the European Investment Bank” and stresses that “under no circumstances should universities be placed at a disadvantage compared to other actors”.

MEPs also agreed to preserve collaborative research projects as the “backbone” of funding programmes, with much simpler and trust-based rules. “Simplification should be at the basis of our reforms,” says Maria Da Graça Carvalho, a Portuguese centre-right MEP who sits on Itre.

Matias thinks that the Commission’s proposal focuses too much on bringing together different types of EU funds, rather than on making them work together in practice. “The [Commission’s] Green Paper looks like a first step towards merging funds, and this could generate more inequality and concentration of funding,” she warns. She insists that the Framework Programme and Structural Funds for regional development should be kept separate, albeit with well-defined alignments between the two.

She is also concerned about the Commission’s strong focus on innovation. “If we lose our capacity to invest in both basic and applied research, then in 10 years we won’t have a basis for innovation,” Matias says. Carvalho argues that one way to maintain this balance is to achieve “a balanced budget [distribution] between the different parts of the innovation chain”.

Itre’s report repeats its request that the EU budget for research and innovation be doubled—from €52.5 billion in 2007–13 to €100bn in 2014–20. The committee adopted the report with 46 in favour and four abstentions. The whole Parliament will vote on the report at a plenary session in Strasbourg, France during the last week of September.