Research and Development Priorities
Introduction
The Swedish Presidency of the EU has chosen to give priority to three issues in the area of R&D: governance of the European Research Area (ERA), the future orientation of programmes at European level and pro-innovation research policies.
Governance of the European Research Area (ERA)
In April 2007 the Commission published a Green Paper on the future of ERA. The Green Paper identified six areas as being fundamental to the future development of ERA: researcher mobility, scientific infrastructure, top-class research institutions, effective knowledge sharing, coordination of research programmes and international cooperation.
In December 2008 the Competitiveness Council adopted the conclusions on the “2020 vision for the European Research Area”. The overarching objective is the creation of a ‘fifth freedom’ for ERA: the free movement of researchers, knowledge and technology.
To enable the vision to be realised, the Swedish Presidency wants to initiate a discussion on the structures needed to manage, plan and develop the various ERA initiatives.
The future orientation of programmes at European level
The EU Framework Programme for Research and Development is the most important instrument for research cooperation at EU level. As the current programme is of a longer duration than previous programmes, time is available for a more thorough discussion on the orientation of future framework programmes. At the same time, the discussion on joint programming at European level has begun.
The Swedish Presidency wants to conduct a discussion based on the challenges that lie ahead for Europe. These challenges include the environment, climate change, the ageing population, health and migration. The question is how Europe can respond to and take control over these changes with the help of research, development and innovation.
The evaluation of the Sixth Framework Programme that was ordered by the Commission and published in early 2009 is naturally an important contribution to the discussion on the design of future framework programmes.
Alongside the discussion on the content of research in future programmes, the Swedish Presidency also intends to raise questions concerning the quality of research, the dissemination of research results, the participation of new Member States and international research cooperation.
Pro-innovation research policies
Innovation can be both technology-based and non-technology-based and affect several different policy areas. Among other things, innovation policy is a matter of creating basic conditions for innovations and spurring their development through incentives, support systems and demand.
To ensure greater use of research results, enhanced coordination between different initiatives and different policy areas is required. An important issue relates to the management of the knowledge triangle, i.e. how the interaction between research, higher education and innovation can be developed so as to increase the impact on developments in business and society.
The European Council conclusions of December 2008 call upon the Commission to draw up a European Innovation Plan linked to the development of ERA and relevant for the development of the future post-2010 Lisbon Strategy. The Swedish Presidency aims to take the initiative in providing input to the innovation plan.