Reshaping the Horizon – LERU’s response to the Horizon consultation

In its contribution to the European Commission (EC)’s consultation on “past, current and future R&I Framework Programmes”, the League of European Research Universities (LERU) presents recommendations aiming at improving the functioning and impact of Horizon Europe and launches some ideas for the future.

In short, the main recommendations for the EC, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (in its different configurations) are:

To stop redirecting funding from Horizon Europe to other programmes.
To avoid adding more new funding priorities or programming layers to pillar II and to rethink how to better organise and reduce the programming of collaborative research in the next FP.
To move from pure rhetoric on synergies to stimulating them in practice and to keep synergies in mind when developing new programmes.
To increase funding for ERC and MSCA since too many excellent proposals are currently not funded because of budget restrictions.
To continue the EIC, especially the pathfinder and EIC Transition, and to maintain its bottom-up character.
To further stimulate interdisciplinarity in pillar II and to improve the integration of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities.
To realise funding lines along the innovation chain in pillar II by introducing lower TRL research opportunities in pillar II in general and in the missions in particular.
To increase accessibility and transparency of the different types of partnerships.
To carefully evaluate new widening tools and continue those that have proven worth the effort such as the ERA fellowships, ERA chairs and Twinning.
To ensure collaboration with the UK and CH as soon as possible, through association and also in strategic areas.

In general, the EC needs to carefully evaluate new tools, initiatives and approaches and to dare to adjust or discontinue what is not deemed successful. Taking time to consult and discuss with researchers, research administrators and stakeholders, also before introducing new schemes and approaches, is key to a successful FP. These and many more points are elaborated in the “Key messages for the EU R&I Framework Programme” statement LERU submitted in response to the EC consultation.

LERU continues to be a fully committed partner to make the R&I Framework Programme even more successful and looks forward to exchanging views on the points raised in the statement with the European institutions.