A new governance process the European Research Area is being launched for a more resilient and competitive Europe

On 19 July 2021, Minister Simona Kustec will host a full-day informal meeting of ministers responsible for research in Europe at Brdo pri Kranju.

Simona Kustec, Minister of education, science and sport

In addition to delegations from the EU, the meeting will be attended by delegations from EFTA i countries and partners from the Western Balkans. The European Commission will be represented by Mariya Gabriel i, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.

The morning discussion will focus on exchanging views on the renewal of the European Research Area (ERA), with the aim to deliver more impact for society. Creating better conditions for researchers, providing high quality infrastructure and the more effective integration and collaboration of science with businesses, higher education and key stakeholders are goals we must pursue if we want a competitive, knowledge-based Europe in the future. The key issue at the ministerial discussion will be how to set up the governance process of the European Research Area in such a way that common objectives can be achieved more quickly at both national and European levels. The keynote speaker of the first panel discussion will be the President of the European Research Council (ERC), Prof. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, who will shed light on the importance of research for a competitive Europe of the future.

Being aware that international cooperation is extremely important for achieving common goals, the ministers will focus on how to improve the global approach in research and innovation at the second panel discussion. The second panel will be opened by Dr Maruša Bradač from the University of California, who will present the importance of a global approach for researchers, and the characteristics of the US and European research areas.

The minister, together with the trio partners and the European Commissioner, will present the main highlights at a press conference at the margins of the meeting at 12:45.

This will be followed by a gala dinner at the National Gallery in Ljubljana, where the Slovenian Presidency will present the results of the Plastic Pirates project, which we are implementing together with our presidential trio partners, Germany and Portugal.