LERU urges EC to support collaborative research in FP10

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) has issued a statement urging the European Commission to ensure that precompetitive collaborative research and innovation (R&I) funding remains a central part of the next R&I Framework Programme (FP10). LERU highlights the critical role such funding plays in fostering cross-sector, cross-border, and interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle Europe’s most pressing industrial and societal challenges.

For LERU precompetitive, collaborative R&I funding should be one of the cornerstones of FP10, next to a reinforced European Research Council (ERC), European Innovation Council (EIC), Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) and funding for ecosystems and infrastructures. LERU points out that in the EU there is no national or regional equivalent that funds multi-sectorial and multi-country collaborations and stresses that such funding is vital to maintain connections between academia and industry or other actors, across borders. It is the only part of FP10 that would fund the middle section of the R&I process where research insights mature and are valorised before commercialisation, scaling or deployment is possible. Hence, it has a clear added value, the association claims.

LERU underlines that precompetitive collaborative funding in FP10 needs to be more focused compared to Horizon Europe’s pillar II. However, while R&I can and should play a central role for increased competitiveness, a sole focus on competitiveness would be a mistake in LERU's view. Many society-driven challenges need innovative solutions stemming from R&I beyond the mere technological dimensions, while technology-focused challenges need to include human-centred perspectives.

The note also sets out LERU’s ideas on how to organise precompetitive collaborative R&I in FP10 in a more flexible and less prescriptive way while at the same time being more focused than in Horizon Europe. This includes a two layered funding model of open and strategic calls within a limited number of top-down, strategic and societal challenges. The proposal also stresses the need to rethink the development of work programmes and calls, as well as to change the way proposals are evaluated.

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LERU note: Precompetitive collaborative Research and Innovation funding in FP10