FP10: "a budget commensurate with the EU's needs and ambitions" among the EUA's demands

The association recommends :

• "Provide a balanced mix of support for basic research, applied research and innovation.
• Increase the budget to €200 bn.
• Protect the budget.
• Guarantee sustainable investment in research and innovation at European and national level."

The EUA recommends for Horizon Europe's Pillar 1 (Science for Excellence):

• "Provide the pillar with an adequate share of the budget, representing at least 30% of the total programme budget.

• Ensure fairer access to Pillar 1, while preserving the principle of excellence".

For Pillar 2 (Global Issues and Industrial and European Competitiveness), it is recommended in particular to:

• "Provide balanced support for projects at different levels of technological readiness.

• Offer more research-related actions.

• Ensure a sufficient budget for traditionally well-functioning open and collaborative cluster calls. At the same time, the funding ceiling for partnerships in FP10 should remain below 50% of the total budget for Pillar 2.

• Focus exclusively on the research and innovation activities of the missions."

On Pillar 3 (More Innovative Europe):

• "Provide support to develop innovation skills.
• Recognise the vital role of universities as drivers of cohesive and effective innovation ecosystems.
• Strengthen alignment between the EIC European innovation council and the EIT European Institute of Innovation and Technology .
• Broaden Pillar 3 support to cover different aspects of innovation, including social innovation."

• "Ensure greater consistency in the rules of the EU funding landscape.
• Initiate synergies at the programme design stage.
• Further explore the Seal of Excellence programme [label awarded to projects that are considered excellent but cannot be funded by the EU].
• Strengthen synergies within the programme itself."

In particular, it is recommended to:

• "Empower institutions in countries with weaker R&I capacity to strengthen their role as R&I leaders.
• Offer more opportunities to carry out collaborative research activities, in the framework of enlargement instruments".

In this context, the EUA suggests that FP10 should "develop a dedicated instrument to enable institutions in widening countries to [EU enlargement countries not participating enough in the FP] to lead the development of ambitious research projects in small research teams comprising researchers from all EU countries".

• "Reduce the complexity of the programme by streamlining its instruments.
• Simplify the application procedure.
• Accept the usual accounting practices of beneficiaries.
• Improve the EU control environment based on the principles of effectiveness, efficiency and value for money.
• Carry out a thorough evaluation of lump-sum financing before extending it."

• "Ensure responsible openness as the default option for global cooperation.
• Help beneficiaries identify security risks."

• "Unleash the full potential of interdisciplinarity.
• To promote the whole diverse spectrum of SHSA research.
• Provide dedicated opportunities for SHSA research.
• Involve SHSA researchers in all phases of the programme development process."

• "Strengthen capacity building for open science.
• Renew the programme's commitment to a fair scholarly publishing ecosystem.
• Explore and promote new avenues for open access publishing.
• Support the adoption of Fair research data skills and practices. [Four requirements of Fair practices : findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable].
• Recognise diverse outputs and practices in the evaluation of researchers."

• "Transform gender equality plans into a committed quest for progress on gender equality.
• Promote equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging throughout the programme."

• "Exploit the programme's capacity to strengthen society's confidence in science.
• Improve the exploitation of project results.
• Improve the transferability and use of project results."

The EUA recommends"strengthening the involvement of R&I stakeholders at all stages of programme planning".

For FP10, the association "suggests doing this through a dedicated body, allowing for the collection of valuable feedback throughout the roll-out of the programme .

There are already good mechanisms for cooperation at EU level with stakeholders, such as the European Research Area Forum, which could be replicated in the design and implementation of FP10."