15 May 2024
LERU publishes position paper on FP10
LERU, the League of European Research Universities, has published a comprehensive position paper comprising its views on FP10. The paper 'LERU’s blueprint for FP10 Recommendations for the next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation' was released on 15 May 2024 and adds more detail to the key messages paper on FP10 that LERU had presented already last year.
For LERU, the FP is a crucial driving force of R&I worldwide and hence a programme with a key role in addressing pressing societal challenges, strengthening competitiveness, and accelerating a move towards strategic autonomy. LERU is committed to making the Framework Programme simpler and even more impactful. The association calls for a budget of €200 billion for FP10 and for ring-fencing this budget, in order to ensure budget stability.
LERU’s views on FP10 encompass an "evolution over a revolution" approach. Key recommendations made in the paper include:
- Strengthening the European Research Council, Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions, and the European Innovation Council’s Pathfinder and Transition.
- Striking a better balance between funding for basic, applied, and close-to-market R&I activities in the successor to Horizon Europ’s Pillar II and in FP10 in general.
- Promoting smooth transitions from research to innovation and vice-versa, and amplifying agility and flexibility, including through the introduction of Research Actions, and bottom-up calls at destination level.
- Adopting a human-centred approach to R&I and a closer involvement of researchers, including from Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, to asking the right questions.
- Advocating for a reserved approach to partnerships and missions, utilising these instruments where most relevant, ensuring their R&I focus and limiting the share of FP10 funding dedicated to partnerships and missions.
- Emphasising the importance of open international collaboration while safeguarding research security.
- Moving from mentioning to realising synergies.
- Valuing the role research infrastructures and knowledge research and innovation ecosystems play in the R&I process.
The LERU FP10 paper highlights the imperative of excellence-based assessment, academic freedom, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Open Science as guiding principles for FP10. Moreover, it advocates for simplification of the application process, enhancing the FP’s accessibility for all applicants.
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