Toespraak eurocommissaris Geoghegan-Quinn over Horizon 2020 (en)

Dear Members,

I am proud to be able to present to you today the European Commission's proposal for Horizon 2020, adopted on 30 November.

Since my European Parliament ratification hearing in January last year I have made it a priority to engage with you and to listen to your concerns. Since then, I have been pleased to outline my plans for research and innovation on a number of occasions.

Meanwhile, the economic context in Europe has continued to worsen, with a crisis of public debt, low growth and high unemployment across much of the continent.

We know that action is needed to bring about fiscal consolidation and structural reform, but we also need to focus now on measures that will produce jobs and growth.

Horizon 2020 is our response. It is at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and it is designed to help deliver jobs, prosperity and a better quality of life.

Even in a very difficult economic climate, the potential benefits of investing in research and innovation are enormous. To give just one example, according to studies carried out for the European Commission, achieving the EU's commonly agreed target of investing 3% of GDP in R&D could create 3.7 million jobs by 2025.

Horizon 2020 should therefore be seen as an economic policy measure. With a proposed budget of 80 billion Euro at constant 2011 prices, it represents a serious and much-needed investment in growth and jobs across Europe.

Horizon 2020 complements the approach being taken in most Member States to increase investment in research and innovation as the routes to future growth.

According to statistics published just a few days ago, 23 out of 27 Member States registered real growth in public and private R&D investment between 2007 and 2010. And this has taken place against a background where only six Member States registered real GDP growth over the same period.

We need this trend to continue. We need more R&D investment by companies and more public investment in research by governments.

We also need to complement this spending in Member States with investment at European level in the research that is best done at European level, where we can combine forces and achieve better value for money with economies of cost and scale.

We can avoid duplication and by pooling resources we get better added value for our spending. We also need to work at European level because the challenges faced by our society - such as climate change, energy and food security, the ageing population - are too big to be solved by a single Member State acting alone.

Working together at European level makes it easier to develop common standards and EU-wide research also increases excellence. That is why Horizon 2020 is designed to work hand-in-hand with the European Research Area.

And don't forget that this proposal is a long-term budget, from 2014 to 2020, that will help accelerate recovery when it comes. Prioritising investment in these areas now is the recipe for ensuring growth and jobs in the future.

We consulted very widely in preparing Horizon 2020 because I was determined to ensure that all stakeholders and the public should be involved from the beginning - we even invited the public to choose the name of the programme!

Our Green Paper on a Common Strategic Framework for research and innovation funding triggered a debate across the European Union, including with yourselves.

We received over 1300 responses, including strategy papers from most of the major stakeholders. But let me acknowledge here in particular the vital contribution of the Parliament, and in particular of this Committee. The Resolution adopted on 27 September 2011, following the report of Ms. Matias, was a rich source of interesting and thoughtful recommendations. It confirmed and further developed the overall policy agenda; and helped build the momentum we needed to put together a coherent and ambitious programme.

The set of proposals that we unveiled on 30 November consists of:

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  a proposal for Horizon 2020 laying down the general objectives, rationale and EU added value, the financial envelope and provisions on control, monitoring and evaluation;
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  a proposal for a single specific programme, with more details on implementation, and the broad lines of activities;
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  a proposal for a single set of Rules for Participation and Dissemination, and;
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  a separate proposal for the part of Horizon 2020 corresponding to the Euratom Treaty.

These proposals are accompanied by the ex-ante impact assessments.

Let me describe Horizon 2020 for you. It is structured around three objectives or pillars.

Under the First Pillar, we want to raise the level of excellence in Europe's science base and ensure a steady stream of world-class research to secure our long-term competitiveness.

This Pillar will support the best ideas, develop talent within Europe, provide world-class research infrastructures, and make Europe an attractive location for the world's best researchers. The proposed budget is 24.6 billion Euro.

The Second Pillar on ‘Industrial Leadership’ aims to make Europe a more attractive location to invest in research and innovation, by promoting activities where businesses set the agenda.

This Pillar will provide major investment in key industrial technologies - including enabling technologies such as nano, biotech, advanced manufacturing and advanced materials. It will maximise the growth potential of European companies by providing them with adequate levels of finance, and help innovative SMEs to grow into world-beating companies. The proposed budget is 17.9 billion Euro.

Under the Third Pillar on ‘Societal Challenges’, we reflect the priorities of Europe 2020 and address people's major concerns. A challenge-based approach will bring together resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies and disciplines, including social sciences and the humanities. The proposed budget is 31.7 billion Euro.

There will be a strong focus on creating business opportunities out of our response to the major concerns of people in Europe and beyond, and we aim to help transform Europe for a post-crisis world, in line with the Parliament's Resolution of 12 May 2011, following Ms. Merkies' report on Innovation Union.

There isn’t time today to describe all the components and features of Horizon 2020, but I would just like to highlight a few points.

Firstly, we have listened and responded to the calls for a dramatic simplification. The measures we are proposing are very much in line with many of the recommendations set out in the Resolution of this House on this issue, following the report by Ms Carvalho.

Horizon 2020 has a much simpler structure, based on the three pillars that I already mentioned. This will make it easier for participants to identify where funding opportunities exist.

We're also making the rules and procedures much simpler, with the same participation rules across all activities, including evaluation criteria, intellectual property rights and cost eligibility rules.

We have delivered on the Parliament's request to establish a new balance between trust and control and between risk-taking and risk-avoidance. As concrete examples, we have abolished the need for time sheets for researchers working fully on an EU project, and our new audit approach should lead to a big reduction in the audit burden on participants.

The funding rules will be much simpler. We are moving from several different funding rates for different beneficiaries and different activities to just two. We are replacing the four different methods currently used to calculate a project's overhead or "indirect costs" with a single flat rate. This is not only simpler but also significantly reduces the likelihood of errors.

And we want successful applicants to get working more quickly: Horizon 2020 aims to reduce the average time to grant by 100 days.

Secondly, support will be given to market take-up of innovation, including by the public sector, through more proof-of-concept, piloting, demonstration, and exploiting the potential of research infrastructures, as well as setting technical standards, pre-commercial procurement and strengthened loan and equity financing.

New approaches such as inducement prizes, that reward the achievement of specific goals, will encourage a wider range of innovators to become involved.

The European Innovation Partnerships - the pilot is concerned with active and healthy ageing - will be tasked with tackling technical, legal and operational barriers to innovation in Europe.

Thirdly, we need to ensure that all regions and countries in Europe find their place in the programme. A concern about participation rates was picked up in the Evaluation of the Seventh Framework Programme, and highlighted in the Parliament’s Resolution following the report of Mr Audy, and again in your Resolution on our Green Paper on the Common Strategic Framework.

As you know, we have reflected long and hard on how we can build stairways to excellence across Europe, so that all countries and regions can find their place in the new programme. The Communication accompanying the Horizon 2020 proposal explains what we plan in practice.

Our approach is designed to contribute to the goals of the European Semester to help and support Member States to develop their own strategies for growth.

I can confirm that there will be an inclusive approach open to new participants, including those with ideas outside of the mainstream, ensuring that excellent researchers and innovators from across Europe and beyond can and do participate

We will continue to allocate grants on the basis of competitive calls for proposals and through independent peer review, selecting only the best projects on the basis of excellence, regardless of geography.

But talent needs to be nurtured and supported to grow into excellence, enabling researchers and innovators across Europe to benefit from Horizon 2020's instruments, networks and funding.

We have comprehensively addressed your concerns about this issue with a measure in the Specific Programme, under the societal challenge "Inclusive and Innovative Societies" that will link emerging institutions, centres of excellence and innovative regions in less developed Member States to leading international counterparts elsewhere in Europe.

This will involve the teaming of excellent research institutions and less developed regions, twinning of staff exchanges, expert advice and assistance, and the development of joint strategies for the establishment of centres of excellence that may be supported by the Cohesion policy funds in less developed regions.

We propose a clearer division of labour between Horizon 2020 and the Structural Funds, while strengthening interactions. Support for regions in building up their research and innovation capacity will be provided through Cohesion policy, which will take forward the concept of smart specialisation and include measures to allow researchers and innovators across Europe to grow into excellence.

We will also establish "ERA Chairs" to attract outstanding academics to institutions with a clear potential for research excellence, and support access to international networks for excellent researchers and innovators who currently lack such contacts.

Fourth, although the integrated approach of Horizon 2020 clearly marks a break with the past, we have taken care to develop and further improve the best from the current programme. For example, the European Research Council (ERC) is a widely acknowledged success story. It supports world class blue-sky research, fertilising the ideas for tomorrow’s innovation. We propose a very substantial increase of the European Research Council budget to 13.2 billion Euro, under Horizon 2020's first pillar.

We also propose to allocate 5.75 billion Euro to the "Marie Sklodowska Curie" programme, the official name the Commission has decided to give to this programme, known as "Marie Curie", to honour this great Polish scientist and Nobel prize winner.

Fifth, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) will play an important role by combining excellent research, education and innovation, the three sides of the knowledge triangle.

The EIT will do this primarily through the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) - the first three of which are on Climate, ICT and Sustainable Energy. In addition, it will ensure that experiences are shared beyond the KICs through targeted dissemination and knowledge-sharing measures.

Sixth, a number of new measures will encourage the participation of SMEs. Besides the budget for the 'Innovation in SMEs' specific objective (inspired by the US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme), an integrated approach to SMEs across Horizon 2020 will mean that around 15% of the combined budget of the second and third pillars will go to them.

SMEs will also be targeted to receive one third of the budget of the 'Access to Risk Finance' objective.

Finally, I should point out that nuclear energy research and innovation will be supported under the Euratom Treaty, allowing the EU to develop, in the interest of all its Member States, the most advanced technologies for nuclear safety, security, radiation protection and non-proliferation, in accordance with the broad conclusions of Mr Brezina's very useful report.

Honourable Members,

I look forward to further discussions with you over the coming months as the inter-institutional process unfolds. My services and I will be on hand to explain, clarify and to discuss with you all aspects of the programme.

And if you judge it useful we can also present the Horizon 2020 package at your political groups' meetings, so that other Members interested in research and innovation, but who are not in the ITRE Committee, might participate actively in the debate.

While we may not agree on every detail, I hope I can count on your support for the broad thrust of Horizon 2020, including the budgetary resources that it requires. Even in these difficult economic times - in fact because of them - we need to invest in the future.

Carrying out research is our core business. But we also need new structures to build a new innovation ecosystem in Europe. I am very confident that Horizon 2020 will be instrumental in meeting those ambitions.

Thank you.