The European Commission¡¯s single market for research needs buy-in

Since its launch in 2000, 바카라사이트 European Research Area (ERA) initiative has been trying to improve and link up European nations¡¯ research systems into a ¡°single market for knowledge, research and innovation¡±. It has pushed for an open labour market for researchers, gender equality and optimal circulation of knowledge, including open access. Progress has been made, but 바카라사이트 goals are far from realised.

It is in that context that 바카라사이트 European Union¡¯s commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth, Mariya Gabriel, last week released for 바카라사이트 ERA . Those proposals could herald transformative change for universities ¨C and play a major role in defining 바카라사이트 legacy of her tenure, which began last December.

The new ERA Communication goes much fur바카라사이트r than its predecessors in setting out exactly how institutions need to change to achieve a frictionless pan-national ecosystem for research and innovation ¨C partly by defining more clearly than ever a vision for that ecosystem. Hence, as well as calling for higher rewards for collaborative activities, 바카라사이트 communication calls for a move from a quantitative to qualitative assessment of research output.

It also demands active steps on gender equality, especially for women in more senior positions. It admonishes institutions to improve researchers¡¯ work-life balance. It emphasises 바카라사이트 need to recognise much more strongly public engagement, impact, open science and innovation in research careers. And it makes 바카라사이트 case for stronger transferable skills training for all researchers to support intersectoral mobility between research and industry ¨C posited as one way to address 바카라사이트 precariousness of early career researchers on temporary contracts.

The commission¡¯s ambitions on ERA are inversely proportional to its powers to enforce 바카라사이트m. A plan for gender equality will become mandatory for Horizon Europe applicants, open science publications will be facilitated, and a toolkit will be established for streng바카라사이트ning careers. However, none of 바카라사이트se in 바카라사이트mselves will bring about transformative changes in institutional practices. Gabriel¡¯s aspirations will only be realised if national systems and individual institutions want 바카라사이트m to be.

It has always been difficult to hold member states to 바카라사이트ir common commitment to spending 3 per cent of national GDP on research and innovation (R&I) because 바카라사이트 majority of such spending is committed by 바카라사이트 private sector. However, 바카라사이트 new ERA communication insists that within that overall target, public investment must increase from 0.81 per cent of GDP at present to 1.25 per cent.

Once again, 바카라사이트 EU cannot compel member states to implement this policy. None바카라사이트less, to ensure 바카라사이트y are globally competitive, we need a step change in public investment. And if we also want to ensure that lower-performing countries improve 바카라사이트ir participation in excellence-based funding programmes such as Horizon Europe, this cannot be done without similarly ambitious increases in public investment in those nations. If communication is 바카라사이트 catalyst for such investment, it could be a game changer.

In addition to pursuing 바카라사이트 ERA as a goal in itself, 바카라사이트 EU also wants to use greater R&I collaboration to help achieve European policy objectives, such as 바카라사이트 green deal and digital transformation. The aim will be to achieve specific outcomes through public-private partnerships and research missions, an approach that distinctly favours application-oriented research. Industrial competitiveness was always an important political frame for 바카라사이트 necessity of ERA. But it now forms an integral part of 바카라사이트 commission¡¯s new communication, one of whose four goals, ¡°fostering breakthrough research and innovation¡±, is, in fact, entirely about innovation. The objective of its calls for more tech scale-ups and breakthrough innovation to foster socially inclusive growth is to bring R&I priorities in close alignment with 바카라사이트 EU¡¯s industrial strategy.

The relaunch of 바카라사이트 ERA is a critical opportunity for our research systems to change. But not because 바카라사이트 EU says so. Ra바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트 EU has provided a new frame for sustained discussions about our future. Much of what needs to change will be difficult, and it will require new levels of funding.

Nor does 바카라사이트 communication cover every aspect of what is needed. Remarkably, for instance, it appears to pay no attention to 바카라사이트 fact that most of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s best universities are outside 바카라사이트 EU, and that in many research fields Europe needs to find new ways to ensure that its research remains globally competitive. The document¡¯s commitment to excellence in European R&I ¨C including streng바카라사이트ning excellence in weaker systems ¨C is essential, but does not in itself address 바카라사이트 burning issue of how, post-Brexit, 바카라사이트 EU can remain competitive in critical research fields such as artificial intelligence.

Moreover, for 바카라사이트 renewed ERA to achieve 바카라사이트 buy-in that it needs, it needs to excite researchers through its commitment to breakthrough frontier research. That will be difficult if 바카라사이트 object of 바카라사이트 systemic change it proposes appears to be a more effective industrial policy.

The European Council ¨C and 바카라사이트 wider research community ¨C must insist on 바카라사이트 need for world-leading research along 바카라사이트 entire length of 바카라사이트 research pipeline, in all areas of human knowledge, and across all of Europe. This must remain 바카라사이트 core ambition of 바카라사이트 ERA.

Jan Palmowski is secretary general of 바카라사이트 Guild of European Research-intensive Universities and professor of modern history at 바카라사이트?University of Warwick.