BusinessEurope comments on Horizon Europe
KEY MESSAGES
- BusinessEurope acknowledges the European Commission’s efforts to increase spending on research and innovation but would have liked to see even more ambition. The proposal is not ambitious enough to fill the gap to reach the EU’s own 3% of GDP research and development investment target.
- Horizon Europe is a unique opportunity to deepen Europe’s innovation capability. It is decisive in the promotion and facilitation of a collaborative approach with all actors of the research and innovation value chain. And it plays a crucial role in leveraging private investments that are indispensable to finance far-reaching research and innovation projects in Europe.
- In 10 specific areas, the proposal needs further work:
- Increase the budget for Horizon Europe to at least €120 billion.
- Allocate a larger share of the budget to the second pillar (i.e. at least 60%).
- Ensure sufficient budget and space for Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) across the whole second pillar.
- Secure an effective new partnerships landscape, using industry’s expertise and current well-functioning partnerships as benchmarks.
- Gradually implement missions using the full width of the programme.
- Ensure industry’s participation throughout the whole programme and strengthen linkages with academia and education.
- Strengthen the RD&I ecosystem by making the EIC tap into the wide potential of innovators, including SMEs, and by increasing the EIT’s budget.
- Realise an Open Science agenda based on the principle ‘as open as possible, as closed as necessary’.
- Achieve synergies with other policy areas and take further measures to simplify the programme.
- Promote and secure participation of third Countries (including EEA / EFTA) based on reciprocity.