The ERA conference featured several leading European policy makers and experts, including Mariya Gabrie - European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Simona Kustec - Slovenian Minister for research, Jean-Eric Paquet - Director-General of DG Research and Innovation, Manuel Heitor – Portuguisee Minister for Science, Frédérique Vidal – French Minister for Research and Innovation, Mr Pavel Doleček – Czech Vice-Deputy Minister for Research, Matilda Ernkrans - Swedish Minister for research, and many others. We were also very honoured that Prof. Helga Nowotny accepted the role of the special guest address.
The opening of the Conference by Commissioner Gabriel and Minister Kustec was followed by a ministerial and senior officials’ roundtable with the current and upcoming Presidency Trios on what Member States can do to make the ERA more effective and efficient. The incoming Presidency Trio underlined that they would ensure a continuation of efforts to actively involve stakeholders in the implementation process of the new, revitalized ERA. The main points of the ministerial roundtable can be summarized in one sentence: it is science that provides solutions to grand societal challenges, therefore, investment in basic/ fundamental research is essential, in fact, an increase of investment in all research fields is of the utmost importance.
The ministerial panel was followed by a thought-provoking speech by Professor Helga Nowotny, former European Research Council (ERC) president, who re-emphasized the importance of investing in basic/fundamental research and highlighted the crucial need to put research and researchers at the core of the new ERA.
The first day culminated in two stakeholder panels under the banner “Journey to the new ERA”. The panels considered the realities of implementing the new ERA. The first panel scrutinised the Pact for R&I and the second considered the wider ERA governance.
On the second day, the Conference was dedicated to parallel interactive breakout sessions, addressing some of the proposed ERA Actions from the new ERA Policy Agenda, namely from two Priority Areas: Deepening a truly functioning internal market for knowledge and Taking up together the challenges posed by the twin green and digital transition, and increasing society’s participation in the ERA .
The workshops were carried-out in various formats, ranging from classical hybrid (on-site and on-line in a single group) to parallel virtual and on-site sub-group roundtables. Altogether 41 recommendations were extracted and distilled through these discussions, which are presented in the Recommendations. The recommendations from each breakout session was reported back to the wider Conference in a plenary. No objections were raised against the recommendations presented and they vary from the visionary to the very concrete, but together create a firm basis for further discussions and implementation within each ERA Agenda Priority Area.
