Toespraak Eurocommissaris Máire Geoghegan-Quinn over investering in wetenschap en innovatie ter bevordering economische groei (en)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Conferences like this are most productive if we listen carefully to each other, exchange our ideas and try to learn from each other. Europe, too, is about pooling information, sharing opinions. And sometimes the best ideas deserve to be borrowed. So, I hope State Secretary Quennet-Thielen will not mind if I also take some inspiration from the title of her own speech - "Today's ideas are tomorrow's prosperity" - for my own intervention - but I would perhaps adapt it slightly to say that "Today's research and innovative ideas are tomorrow's prosperity".

Europe's current crisis is a debt crisis, a financial crisis, but above all, it's a growth crisis. The old recipes just aren't working. Yes, we need to get our fiscal policy back on the right track and at the same time we need to regain lost competitiveness. But I know only one way of achieving this: putting research and innovation policy at the heart of Europe's fight for jobs and prosperity.

Our future depends on competitive industries that are able to create jobs. This means investing in research, in new technologies and in creating a climate that boosts innovation. The Europe 2020 Strategy sets a clear research and innovation investment goal: 3% of GDP in R&D. One study shows that reaching this target could create up to 3.7 million new jobs and increase annual GDP in Europe by nearly 800 billion Euro by 2025.

The leading knowledge and innovation economies are weathering the economic crisis better. Indeed, there is a strong correlation that can be shown between the economic rebound of Member States in 2010 and their average level of R&D investments over the period 2004-2009. The rule seems to be: the higher the average R&D intensity in the past, the faster the economic growth now.

Germany is also proof of this, with increased investments in R&D over the period between 2009 and 2014. But even for a large R&D-intensive country like Germany, it's not just a question of increasing investment, but we must in parallel increase the quality of our research system and increase the impact of research and innovation on growth and jobs. We need to do this at national and at EU level.

The Excellence Initiative, the High-Tech Strategy and this Cluster Competition are all part of Germany's response to this challenge. Innovation Union, Horizon 2020 and the European Research Area are Europe's response.

Innovation Union, launched in October 2010, contains a series of commitments to improve the basic conditions that allow researchers, entrepreneurs and companies to flourish. We will remove any obstacles that prevent innovators from transforming the excellent basic research that Europe does so well into new products and services that will be successful in world markets. We need, for example, faster standard-setting in Europe, cheaper and easier patenting, more public procurement of innovative products and services and better access to venture capital.

We have made specific commitments in Innovation Union on how to achieve these objectives within clearly defined timescales. And after just over a year, I am pleased to say that according to the State of the Innovation Union 2011 Report published last December, we have made excellent progress in implementing Innovation Union's 34 different commitments.

Innovation Union demands actions and reforms from all kinds of people and institutions: governments, big business, SMEs, researchers, universities, the public sector, research organisations and many more. But we are also taking action and implementing reforms at the European level.

Horizon 2020 - our new instrument for European research and innovation funding from 2014 - will make our support for research and innovation simpler, more efficient, and more effective at delivering the bigger impacts needed to sustain growth and tackle societal challenges such as climate change, health, energy and food security.

Horizon 2020 represents a radical break from the past Framework Programmes, and this change began at the earliest planning stages. One year ago, when I launched the Green Paper on a Common Strategic Framework for research and innovation funding, I promised that stakeholders' involvement would not be a cosmetic exercise. I wanted innovative and fully transparent consultation, I wanted a real exchange of ideas.

The overwhelming response to the public consultation provided extremely valuable input that strongly shaped our Horizon 2020 proposal. With 272 responses to the consultation - 13% of the total - Germany was the most active Member State.

We received position papers from a wide variety of German stakeholders: research and higher education institutions, business, federal and regional government bodies, clusters and interest groups. Thank you again for this important contribution. And there is a great deal of alignment between the position papers of the German Government and the draft Horizon 2020 legislative proposal.

Horizon 2020 will make it easier to participate in EU-funded research and innovation actions, it will increase scientific and economic impact and it will give the taxpayer better value for money.

Horizon 2020 means simplification. I introduced several simplification measures last year for FP7, but Horizon 2020 will go much further. We are bringing all the European-level funding for research and innovation under one umbrella for the first time, with a single set of participation rules for the whole programme.

Horizon 2020's simplified structure is composed of three distinct, yet mutually reinforcing priorities.

Innovation starts with excellent research. Horizon 2020's First Pillar is aimed at boosting excellence in Europe's science base. A proposed investment of over 24 billion Euro will enable the most talented scientists to carry out cutting edge research of the highest quality. We propose doubling to more than 13 billion Euro our support to the spectacularly successful European Research Council, securing the best fundamental research that leads to the greatest innovations.

We also propose to increase to 5.75 billion Euro funding to the Marie Sklodowska Curie actions on researcher training, mobility and careers; while funding for research infrastructures will focus on networking and access, and on maximising the innovation potential of these infrastructures.

The Second Pillar of Horizon 2020 aims to boost industrial leadership, with actions to make Europe a more attractive place for businesses to invest in R&D and innovation. We will invest nearly 18 billion Euro under this pillar.

We propose 13.7 billion Euro in targeted support on the key enabling and industrial technologies that underpin innovation across different industries and sectors. This includes ICT, nanotechnologies, advanced materials, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing processes and space.

We also propose a major strengthening of our support to venture capital and loans for innovative companies with a budget of 3.5 billion euro. Linked to this, we are introducing new support tailored to the needs of innovative SMEs.

The Third Pillar focuses on Tackling Societal Challenges, which will receive nearly 32 billion Euro of funding. It is proposed to focus on the following six challenges: Health, demographic change and wellbeing; Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine research and the bio-economy; Secure, clean and efficient energy; Smart, green and integrated transport; Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials; and, Inclusive, innovative and secure societies.

Solutions to these societal challenges will only come from groundbreaking research and innovation which brings together the best minds from across Europe - that is where the European Research Area comes in. At the same time, finding solutions to these challenges will offer massive opportunities for European businesses to create growth and jobs.

Horizon 2020 will continue to fund projects on the basis of excellence. It is true that some regions in Europe have not done as well as they could under existing programmes, but we want to close this gap, and it is the combination of EU research funding and structural funds that will do the trick.

The Commission proposals for the new Structural Funds already prioritise research and innovation. I will work closely with Commissioner Hahn to ensure that our respective programmes result in real synergies on the ground. This is a good moment to say a few words about clusters in particular.

Clusters and cluster policies play a vital role in creating a competitive and innovation-based economy. The EU Framework Programmes for Research have recognised this and played their part, including by stimulating clusters and networks in strategically selected fields.

Within FP7, "Regions of Knowledge" supports transnational co-operation between research-intensive clusters, with a total budget of 126 Million Euro. These clusters are vehicles for knowledge transfer from academia to business - from research to commercialisation - bringing together universities, research centres, enterprises and regional authorities.

The clusters boost innovation and sustainable economic development in their regions. "Regions of Knowledge" also helped regions to work together across borders. Sustainable partnerships have been built on the basis of common research agendas and joint action plans. The positive result of this joint cooperation and networking is acknowledged by the intermediate evaluation of the programme.

Let me give you one concrete example of a project that we were pleased to support under "Regions of Knowledge: the CREATE project on ICT Innovation in Creative Industries. Led by Baden Württemberg, it helped one of the most powerful German regions to deepen its cooperation in the field of creative industries through a strong partnership with clusters from Piemonte, Rhône-Alpes and the West Midlands.

"Regions of Knowledge" is supporting many other examples of Europe-wide cooperation between clusters, and I would add that one of the award winners of the "Spitzencluster" competition in 2007 - the LUFTFAHRTCLUSTER (aviation cluster) in Hamburg is one of the key partners in the "Regions of Knowledge" Clean Aerospace Region - or CARE - project that co-ordinates nine aerospace clusters around Europe.

In the future, we will be looking for even greater synergies with the new round of Structural Funds post-2014, based on regional smart specialisation strategies. Naturally, clusters will play a major role in creating these synergies.

But, I really believe that Europe will only fully benefit from the talent, knowledge and ingenuity of our researchers, wherever they work, if it becomes as easy for research institutes, universities and companies to cooperate within the European Union as it is within their own Member States. We need to remove obstacles to the cross-border flow of people, ideas and funding.

Despite some progress in recent years, we have yet to complete the long-promised European Research Area - our "single market for knowledge". However, nothing focuses attention like a tight deadline, so last year the Heads of State and Government underlined the political urgency by calling for the creation of a Single Market for Knowledge, Research and Innovation to be in place by 2014.

The Communication that I intend to launch this June will identify a small number of key issues for immediate action that are crucial for achieving ERA and that will make the biggest impact on the economy. By focusing our energies on just a few ideas, we can achieve much more.

But let me be clear, ERA is not about creating a single research system. It is about connecting up national systems so that we can get more out of them. It is about creating a true single market for research and researchers.

And just as the single market for goods, capital and services has improved the competitiveness of our industries, ERA will boost the competitiveness of our research system.

We need ERA for purely pragmatic reasons. ERA is not an end in itself, but the means of generating more research excellence in Europe, and ultimately more economic growth.

And what does Germany stand to gain from the European Research Area? The recent Innovation Union Scoreboard shows that Germany scores comparatively low in terms of human resources, and as regards open, excellent and attractive research systems. In fact, it performs below countries like the Netherlands, Switzerland and its neighbours in Scandinavian countries as regards international scientific co-publications and on citations of publications - a measure of the efficiency of the research system.

The need for change in Germany was illustrated by the advice on ERA from the German Wissenschaftsrat in 2010, which underlined the importance of a more flexible outlook from institutions, including partial opening-up to the rest of Europe.

This advice also emphasised that Germany should play a more active role in influencing the building of ERA - I could not agree more with this! It also advised to set the right course for the national science system, so that Germany maintains its ability to offer excellent research conditions for German scientists, and attractive conditions for foreign and returning German researchers.

A fully-operational ERA would ensure that Germany can more easily pick from a larger pool of scientists, which is something of particular importance since Germany is short of around 75,000 qualified engineers, while other European countries have unemployed engineers looking for work. ERA will get rid of any barriers that may make researchers hesitate to take up work in another country, whether those barriers are legal or administrative, or based on a lack of information.

And ERA is also about excellence. We need to increase research excellence everywhere. Germany already has an excellent science base, but with increased competition within the EU and from the BRIC economies, you already know that one can never afford to be complacent.

ERA can clearly contribute to further strengthening excellence in the German science system, alongside national initiatives like Germany's "Exzellenzinitiative" and its High-Tech Strategy that are creating competition for greater excellence.

Competition for more excellence is very important, but we should equally value strengthened cooperation. Germany's well known High Tech Strategy is focused on strong cooperation between industry and universities, and the importance that is given to a clusters-based approach appears to be one of the keys to its success.

Increased cooperation and coordination are central elements of the European Research Area as well as Horizon 2020. Co-operation not only between academia and industry at EU level, but also between national and European initiatives and programmes, and indeed between European programmes, such as for instance the Structural Funds and Horizon 2020.

So I am delighted that this Cluster Conference will reward those that have won the "competition" for best "cooperation", by giving prizes and financial support to those who are good at bringing science and industry together in specific clusters to generate the innovations of tomorrow.

It has been a pleasure and an honour to open the conference. I would like to thank Minister Schavan again for this invitation and offer my congratulations to the Ministry for organising this innovation policy event at a very appropriate time. And congratulations also to the winners of this high level Leading-Edge Cluster Competition who will receive their prizes this morning.

This event is important not only for Germany but also from a European perspective.

If we can recognise and reward excellence, we are taking an important step in boosting excellence across Germany and across Europe.

I look forward to the results of your discussions.

Thank you.