Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EExres (Estonian Presidency Research Policy Conference ‘European Research Excellence - Impact and Value for the Society’)
Reporting period: 2017-06-01 to 2018-03-31
The conference “European Research Excellence – Impact and Value for Society”, under the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, took place in Tallinn on October 12, 2017. The conference attracted more than 300 delegates with the aim to demonstrate to policymakers that excellent research is essential to addressing Europe’s challenges and for increasing competitiveness. The conference focused on the questions how to build a stronger case for investing more in research and innovation, and what needs to be improved in the next framework programme to get better results.
The European commissioner for research, science, and innovation, Carlos Moedas, opened the conference with a video message. In three plenary sessions, invited speakers and delegates i) discussed why Europe needs investment in bottom-up, interdisciplinary and visionary research; ii) addressed current issues in approaches to assessment and how to integrate the long-term impact of research investment in economic models; iii) shared ideas on how to design a research and innovation system that can capitalise very good research base, advance a knowledge-based society and benefit the society.
The conference concluded with the announcement of a declaration, the Tallinn Call for Action, with specific steps for the union to move towards increased impact of research, and increasing the societal value of research done in Europe. The Tallinn Call for Action makes a total of seven recommendations across three pillars — investment, impact and trust, — addressed at funders, policy makers, researchers and research organisations, academia, and media. https://www.hm.ee/sites/default/files/tallinn_call_for_action_2017.pdf(opens in new window)