̽»¨ÊÓƵ

The European Union¡¯s research funding proposals while ¡°contradicting each other¡±, the head of a leading university group has said, after the European Commission confirmed that its planned competitiveness fund would not support research and innovation.

Speaking to ̽»¨ÊÓƵ, Kurt Deketelaere, secretary-general of the League of European Research Universities (Leru), said the commission had ¡°always created the impression¡± that some of the proposed ?(?350 billion)?budget for the new European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) would be available to fund basic research.

In its July communication on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), for instance, the commission said the ECF, ¡°working in synergy with Horizon Europe, will provide seamless support to European innovators from research to deployment, from ideas to start-up to scale-up¡±.

Last week, however, Massimiliano Esposito, head of unit at the commission¡¯s directorate-general for research and innovation, said in a Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) webinar that legal constraints will prevent the ECF from funding research and innovation activities but will instead support their deployment.

All such activities, Esposito said, will be funded through the successor to the current Horizon Europe framework programme, also known as FP10, which is expected to have a budget of €175 billion. This, , will leave only the European Research Council (ERC) to ¡°explicitly fund fundamental research at EU level¡±.

While the ERC budget has not been confirmed, early reports suggest it will stand at €31.5 billion ¨C less than 10 per cent of the €400 billion competitiveness budget. If this transpires, Deketelaere said, ¡°basic research is heading for disaster¡±.

Before Esposito¡¯s comments,?¡°I¡¯d said I could live with €175 billion for the framework programme, thinking this would get an add-on from the budget of the ECF,¡±? the Leru head told THE.

¡°If the budget proposals go through as they are now, that would mean that in the period 2028 to 2034, Europe, from its own budget, would make free a bonanza of €400 billion to tackle competitiveness. But at the end of the day, only €31.5 billion of that would be focused on basic research,¡± he said.

¡°What annoys me the most is that the European Union has such big ambitions and wants to compete with China and the United States. They say they will put €400 billion on the table for competitiveness, but not even 10 per cent of that will be used to invest in basic research ¨C basic research which we really need to be able to compete.¡±

While the major investment through the ECF will enable the EU ¡°to catch up in the short term a little bit¡±, Deketelaere said, fundamental research is essential for long-term competitiveness with the US and China. ¡°What we should do is invest beyond what the States and China are doing now. We have to look at and prepare for the unknown ¨C what kind of possible challenges can this planet and this population be confronted with.¡±

¡°If it is only a question of catching up with the US and with China on the things that they are already doing, I would say that won¡¯t make any kind of difference. Obviously we are not going to catch up 100 per cent with them, and we are certainly not going to be able to compete on those things where they already have an enormous advantage compared to the European Union.¡±

¡°If member states, MEPs, commissioners and ministers are confronted with this reality that Europe would only invest €30 billion out of €400 billion on basic research, then I hope that they are all realistic enough to know this is way insufficient and that they will reconsider the budget given to FP10,¡± Deketelaere said.

¡°What I want to see happening is that a certain amount of money of the proposed ECF budget is transferred to the framework programme¡¯s budget.¡±

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com