Position Paper on the Common Strategic Framework VINNOVA Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems 5 May 2011
Executive summary The Green Paper proposes a Common Strategic Framework (CSF) for Europe s future research and innovation funding focused on tackling the most pressing societal challenges in Europe. VINNOVA, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, supports the overall ambition presented in the Green Paper to merge the CIP, FP and EIT and would like to stress the following features: Focus on Grand societal challenges. The CSF must be geared towards solving Grand societal challenges. Getting the users involved in finding solutions will increase impact, strengthen European competitiveness and contribute to the delivery of the Europe 2020 objectives. Collaborative projects as the main instrument. Building on the success of the current Framework programme, VINNOVA recommends that collaborative projects funded through committed budgets managed by the European Commission using common pot models continue to be the main instrument in the CSF. Address the whole innovation cycle. VINNOVA recommends that instruments for demonstrators and test beds as well as public procurement for innovation are included in the CSF. Integrating non-technological innovation as a key element to increase the innovative capacity of European organisations is also crucial. Strengthening the Innovation capacity in SMEs. VINNOVA presents a number of recommendations on how to increase SME participation in collaborative projects. VINNOVA would also like to see a dedicated open area for SME Innovation focused on bottom up support. Strengthening competitiveness with mobility and training. VINNOVA recommends one coherent programme for mobility and training stimulating, in particular, inter-sectoral mobility. Balance between European funding and mix funding schemes. The recognition of the Framework programme as an excellence scheme is mainly due to the committed budgets and common pot solutions coupled with wellrecognized, excellent peer review procedures. These must also be the main building blocks in the future CSF. VINNOVA urges the Commission to carefully consider further expansion of the programme approach based on mixed funding from the Commission and member states. Page 2 of 12
Introduction VINNOVA, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems, welcomes the opportunity to participate in the important debate on the future European research and innovation programmes provided through the Commission s consultation on the Green Paper From Challenges to Opportunities: Towards a Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation funding. Research and innovation are prerequisites for improving quality of life, enhancing social welfare and boosting economic competitiveness. The Green Paper proposes a common approach for Europe s future research and innovation funding focused on tackling the most pressing societal challenges in the Europe. VINNOVA supports the overall ambition presented in the Green Paper to merge the CIP, FP and EIT. Such a framework is an important first step paving the way for a more seamless approach to public investments in research and innovation, which will result in better uptake of results from research, and create the competitive and innovative Europe envisioned in the Europe 2020 strategy. However, it is important that the proposed Common Strategic Framework (CSF) will be realised as more than just a framework it has to result in a real integration of activities and instruments. This position paper presents VINNOVA s views on the parts of the future research and innovation landscape that fall under our competence. 1. From Challenges to Opportunities - Europe s Future must be Grand Europe and the world face a number of societal challenges which need to be tackled with common innovative solutions. The future EU funding programmes for research and innovation, focusing on the Europe 2020 objectives, should address the societal challenges of concern to European citizens making use of European competitive advantages. A challenge-driven approach will help solve European challenges, and will at the same time open up opportunities to strengthen competitiveness of European businesses as new innovations are introduced. VINNOVA therefore suggests that the future CSF has a challenge-based structure. This is necessary in order to achieve a change in mindset from a problem-identifying approach to one that focuses on delivery of solutions. The new approach will focus on the users. Without the involvement of users, both in the priority setting process as well as in the projects themselves, new innovations will be the exception rather than the rule. It is also fundamental to make efforts to translate societal challenges Page 3 of 12
into specific needs, which in turn will create the demand incentivizing investments in innovative solutions. Solutions based on European scientific and industrial strengths. Furthermore, Grand societal challenges cannot be approached and solved separately by research fields and sectors working independently. Instead, multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral approaches must be encouraged, which will also contribute to making the challenges operational. VINNOVA is currently piloting a similar approach with challenge driven research and innovation. We are issuing a call for proposals in the following four areas: Sustainable and attractive cities, Health, wellbeing and medical care, Competitive industry and Information society 3.0. With this new initiative VINNOVA wants to increase its focus on demand-driven instruments and strengthen a user-driven approach to innovation. Recommendations Address Grand societal challenges through multi-sectoral approaches. Complex problems require multifaceted solutions and VINNOVA therefore supports a structure of cross-thematic calls for projects. Hence, the future CSF should build on best practices from cross-thematic and cross-sectorial approaches already used during previous and current framework programmes, such as the Joint Calls and the Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in FP7. Support the development of Key Enabling Technologies (KET). Key enabling technologies, such as ICT, advanced materials (bio, nano) and cognitive sciences, are important drivers of innovations. They also play a key role in addressing the Grand societal challenges and continue to be of great importance for new businesses and for the competitiveness of companies, especially SMEs. VINNOVA would like to see a continued support to the development of cutting edge KETs for the benefit of European businesses and societies. Keep collaborative projects as the main instrument. Collaborative projects should be kept as the preferential instrument for collaboration in the future CSF. This would entail keeping existing rules and regulations for collaborative projects, which are well known and established at the European level, including the common pot model and committed budgets managed by the European Commission or appointed executive agencies. There should also be a balance between small and medium scale projects and large scale projects as well as between top-down and bottom-up projects. Smaller, bottom-up projects and with flexible time scales are often favoured by smaller actors, including SMEs and beginners. This, in turn, could strengthen the innovation aspects of those projects, both in terms of the translation of the outcomes to the market, as to the advancement of science, through more collaborative R&D. Larger projects will continue to be important as they create critical mass. For the sake of flexibility, VINNOVA urges the Commission to develop Page 4 of 12
models that facilitate for smaller actors, especially SMEs, to join on-going projects. Furthermore, the current framework programme s established and well recognized peer-review should be upheld. FP7 evaluations are in several member states accepted as excellent by research communities and business. Reduce the complexity of the ERA-instrument portfolio. As identified in the interim evaluation of FP7, the current ERA funding landscape is far too complex. In the future CSF, instruments with similar objectives must be merged. In the remaining ones, rules, regulations and administrative routines must be harmonized. New instruments should only be introduced if needed and obsolete ones must be terminated. However, VINNOVA foresees that it might be necessary to develop new instruments in the area of innovation if the goals set out in the Innovation Union Flagship are to be reached. Involve users in priority setting. Relevant user groups must be involved in setting the research and innovation agenda in the future CSF. Business involvement in the priority setting process is a prerequisite for high impact RDTI-projects and increased business participation. The European technology platforms (ETPs), which bring industry, regulators and financial institutions together to develop long term strategic agendas within specific fields of technology, have played an important role in the current framework program. VINNOVA would like to see them continue to have a key role in the priority setting discussion in the CSF. Moving towards a challenge-driven approach also increases the importance of having the public sector on board. Solving challenges, such as ageing societies and sustainable cities, is not feasible without the involvement of public sector actors on all levels. VINNOVA believes that the European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) could give voice to public sector demand. Ensure flexibility. In addition to the Grand societal challenges and KETs budgets VINNOVA would like to see resources to be set aside to ascertain a degree of flexibility that makes it possible to address suddenly appearing issues, such as ashclouds, financial crises, bird flu, requiring quick responses of a RDTI nature. Another way to increase the flexibility would be to include an instrument similar to the New and Emerging Science and Technology (NEST) instrument in FP6 within each of the predefined societal challenges. This bottom-up part should be included to ensure openness and readiness to new approaches and solutions. Depending on the maturity of the Challenge, the size of the NEST-part could be continuously adapted. Raise the awareness of Intellectual Property Rights issues and Intellectual Asset Management. The increased focus on innovation requires that greater attention is paid to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). The present system of FP7 rules is appreciated as a well working balance between rigidity and flexibility. Any radical changes to the current system should therefore be avoided. However, VINNOVA sees a need for awareness raising activities and initiatives as regards IPR aspects. Page 5 of 12
Stimulate global collaborations. VINNOVA supports the views of the Expert Group of the FP7 interim evaluation regarding international collaboration in the future CSF. In order to reach excellence and enhance European competiveness, the best and most excellent research and innovation milieus in Europe must be encouraged to collaborate with the best research milieus outside of Europe. Opening up the future CSF should primarily be based on a reciprocity principle, allowing participation on equal terms in programmes and activities of high mutual interest. In the future, unilateral opening of the CSF should also be considered when in line with European interests and when impact depends on the participation of third country actors. Furthermore, in order to tackle Grand challenges the future CSF should facilitate a structure for global strategy processes and priority setting also engaging non European actors. 2. Delivering the Innovation Union Address the whole innovation cycle In order for Europe to reach the goals of Europe 2020 and the objectives set out in the Innovation Union Flagship, the future CSF instruments must address the whole innovation cycle. VINNOVA would like to see effective instruments in three fields on a European level i.e. demonstrators and test beds, public procurement for innovation and activities for releasing the European innovation potential. Demonstrators and test beds. In order to strengthen European competitiveness it is important to increase the support for innovation infrastructures, such as demonstrators and test beds. Creating large European demonstration facilities is crucial in order to achieve the critical mass needed to secure global visibility and attractiveness. They also serve as important vehicles for competence building and standard setting etc. Furthermore, in light of the move towards a Grand challenge approach it is also necessary to support new kinds of demonstrators where academic, industry and public sector actors can interact in open innovation collaborations to develop new solutions. Public procurement for innovation. VINNOVA believes that demand-driven innovation measures, including public procurement for innovation, have the potential to ensure that EU research and innovation funding takes better account of the broad and non-linear nature of the innovation process. In addition, the relationship between customer and supplier is vital for innovation processes. Ambitiously constructed customer requirements and early end-user participation can lead to new features, better quality and reduced costs. As stated in the Innovation Union, significant amounts of money are managed by the public sector in Europe and parts of this can be directed to drive innovation. Page 6 of 12
Releasing the innovation potential. In a competitive knowledge economy, nontechnological innovations such as new forms of work organisation, work processes, culture and management practices are becoming increasingly important. These issues decide not only if and how employees skills and ideas will be used to fuel the innovation process, but constitute some of the most important conditions that enhance (or inhibit) the innovation capacity of European hi-tech as well as low-tech companies and organisations. The vision of Europe 2020 will not be realised unless organisations can be engaged and supported to develop the innovation capacity needed to make use of these resources. At present there are substantial differences and fragmentation between member states in policy and practice regarding organisational conditions for innovation capacity. This situation is problematic in view of building a common European Research Area and for European organisations to organise work in a way that facilitates value creation as opposed to cutting costs to stay competitive. Recommendations Access for all interested parties to innovation infrastructures. Using public money to support innovation infrastructure must always be coupled with a requirement to allow access for anyone that would like to use it. Closed sites for a small number of actors or restricted access for certain member states cannot be accepted. Merge demonstration activities in FP and CIP under a harmonized and streamlined set of rules and regulations. Unleash the power of public procurement for innovation. VINNOVA supports the statement in the Innovation Union about unleashing the public sector s purchasing power to spur innovation. VINNOVA urges the Commission to continue to support member state initiatives stimulating public procurement for innovation, and to develop European schemes in cases where European Added Value is identified. In doing so, experiences from current Pre-commercial Procurement instruments, the Lead Market Initiative and the work of the INNO-Partnering Forum could be taken into account. Integrate non-technological innovation. Activities to support innovation capacity building, such as learning, creativity, collaboration, and employee participation, have to be integrated in the future CSF. Complementary activities should, alongside technical innovations, focus more extensively on non-technological innovations like workplace innovation, innovations in work organisation, employee-driven innovations and incremental innovation in business processes. The above mentioned actions should be considered as an integrated part in future instruments in order for Europe to generate competitive and innovation organisations. Page 7 of 12
3. Strengthening the Innovation Capacity of SMEs Increasing the innovative capacity of SMEs is crucial for future growth and job creation in Europe. The Common Strategic Framework must be designed to meet this challenge and hence, any future instrument on European level targeting innovation in SMEs must be more oriented towards the demands of the companies. In order to increase SMEs participation, VINNOVAs suggests: 1. Measures to increase SME participation in collaborative projects 2. Dedicated open area for SME innovation consisting of a limited number of instruments addressing the specific needs of SMEs as suggested by TAFTIE. 1 Recommendations Fast track for SMEs. Introduce a fast track for SMEs in collaborative projects. Such a fast track could include SME-friendly application procedures, possibility to join ongoing projects, etc. SME-friendly procedures, rules and regulations. Collaborative projects including SMEs need to have a quick evaluation process. SMEs would also benefit from smaller, more flexible projects, both in duration and prescriptiveness, which can be rapidly implemented. Furthermore, rules and regulations must be simplified and adapted to suit the conditions of the SMEs. Continued support for R&D-performing SMEs. VINNOVA acknowledges the need for a European bottom-up scheme to stimulate internationalisation of R&D-performing SMEs. As the interim evaluation of the Eurostars programme shows, it is a well run and effective programme. Hence, VINNOVA recommends the continuation and integration of the Eurostars programme in the open area for SME innovation. Open up the RSFF instruments for SMEs. VINNOVA suggests that the EC-EIB s Risk Sharing Financing Facility (RSFF) instrument should be adapted to the needs of SMEs. Present schemes in CIP regarding venture capital (early stage and high growth) should be integrated in the CSF. Use cluster organisations to stimulate SME participation in the future CSF. Clusters can offer a trust-based environment which makes RDTI collaboration easier and 1 As a member of TAFTIE, VINNOVA fully supports the recommendations of the TAFTIE position paper on the Common Strategic Framework, including the idea of a dedicated open area for SME to complement the collaborative projects. Page 8 of 12
provide a fertile local environment that facilitates the take up and commercialisation of R&D results. 4. Strengthening competitiveness with mobility and training As foreseen in the Innovation Union the completion of ERA requires a highly skilled workforce. Researchers with experiences from a broad range of sectors and cultures, with particular focus on business involvement will be requested. To foster and recruit the best researchers Europe needs attractive career paths and challenging innovative environments. The current mobility programme, People, has built upon a clear line of continuity of the highly appreciated Marie Curie Actions. In a knowledge-based society it is obvious that innovation, training and mobility is intertwined and need to be approached as such. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) will create attractive centres providing, among others things, excellent higher education training programmes. A successful mobility and training programme in the future CSF must provide suitable structures and build on previous well established, successful instruments, such as Erasmus and Marie Curie Actions. An inclusion of the EIT in the CSF requires that mobility and training is coordinated within a common programme, including actions from European master students training, training networks, doctoral programmes, industry-academia staff exchange as well as recruitment of key researchers on a global scale. Recommendations One coherent programme for mobility and training. VINNOVA foresees a great demand for excellent training at three different levels: master, doctoral and postdoctoral training. Instruments to address the various levels already exist but are fragmented in the ERA landscape. To allow future mobility and training programme to correspond to the needs of the ERA, further development and reinforcements are needed. VINNOVA suggests that a structure where COFUND programmes allow for doctoral studies as well as for individual lifelong training would give the various nodes of training the flexibility needed. In addition, COFUND has the capacity to create impact on the national level. Stimulate mobility between sectors, such as in training networks, is essential in bridging the gap between research, innovation and education. It is important that the instruments are structured as to welcome the involvement and participation of industrial partners. Interaction of innovative SMEs in PhD training is vital for Page 9 of 12
employability. In order to enhance the attractiveness of SMEs as hosts for Marie Curie fellows, a SME-panel could be introduced. Marie Curie policies, the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers should apply to all research funding within CSF. Reduce the number of instruments. A future mobility and training programme must be straightforward and focus on its core components. Individual fellowships could be presented under a single instrument focusing on Intra-European and international incoming mobility. 5. Working together to implement Europe 2020 As stated in the Innovation Union, the need for more coordinated public investments in research and innovation are obvious. Regions, member states and the European Commission must all work together to secure the delivery of critical mass and global attractiveness. Only then is it possible for Europe to strengthen its competitive edge in the global race for future talent, ideas and investments. Coordinating member state investments is a daunting task and many new measures have been introduced during the course of FP7, such as ERANET +, Article 185, Joint programming. VINNOVA would like to put forward some reflections. Limited budgets of funding agencies. The pooling of national resources is necessary to achieve critical mass in selected areas. So far much of the coordination has been done using a programme approach where the lion share of member states funding has come from national funding agencies. The problem is that, in Sweden, only a small share of public spending goes via funding agencies and the lion share goes directly to the universities. A programme approach using funding agencies as the main co-funding organisation seems, at least for a small country like Sweden, to have reached its limits. Acknowledging the need for coordination and critical mass, it must be remembered that national actors also are responsible for building strong national knowledge bases, which is a prerequisite for participation in the Framework Programme. These national investments are necessary to be able to access knowledge produced elsewhere as well as to contribute and compete on a European and global scale. Two-track ERA. Making access to European research and innovation programmes dependent on the availability of national funds constitutes a great risk for creating a two-track ERA. In light of the current financial situation in many member states, the continuation of the current mode of coordination might be detrimental to the Innovation Union objective of completing a common ERA by 2014. Page 10 of 12
Erosion of Excellence. National funding as a prerequisite for eligibility of researchers, industry and other actors in European programmes might erode the solid reputation of European research programmes and other European programmes as excellence based schemes. Europe cannot afford to lose out on the greatest talents and the most important users of knowledge based on the budgetary situation in specific countries. Increased complexity. As stated in the interim evaluation of FP7, the European research and innovation funding landscape is highly complex. 2 Adding the layer of national co-funding, with accompanying rules and regulations, has in many cases resulted in less transparent evaluation processes, delays in the time to grant and increased administrative burden. 3 Recommendations Balance between European Commission funded programmes and mixed funding schemes. The framework programme is a well-known and recognised funding scheme characterised by transparency and predictability for applicants. Committed budgets managed by the European Commission and common pot models coupled with state-of-the-art peer review models are the main reasons. The legacy of the European programmes must be treasured and further developed in the work ahead. Consequently, VINNOVA believes that member state commitment for coordination must be expressed through an increased share of research and innovation spending in the overall EU budget. It must also be remembered that every EU-project funded through the European Commission is co-funded by its participants, which means that national funding already contribute to an increased coordination of investments. For these reasons VINNOVA recommends not to increase the current share of mixed funding schemes. Consider increasing the use of COFUND measures. In order to increase coordination and critical mass COFUND measures in new areas could be considered for programmes fulfilling agreed criteria. Opening up for top up schemes where important stakeholders contribute with funding, such as universities, RTOs, and industries could be considered. Streamlined and harmonised rules and regulations. Future co-funding and coordination of programmes between member states and the European Commission must have a limited number of streamlined and harmonised set of rules and should 2 European Commission (2010) Interim Evaluation of the Seventh Framework Programme - Report of the Expert Group 3 European Commission (2010) First Interim Evaluation of the ARTEMIS and ENIAC Joint Technology Initiatives Page 11 of 12
use the same instruments as the CSF. The current development where every new programme sets up new and specific rules must end. Facilitate light weight variable geometry solutions. The ERA-NETs have in some cases shown the high impact of targeted transnational initiatives in specific areas. VINNOVA urges the European Commission to continue to provide incentives for these kinds of collaborations through funding of network activities, exchange of best practice etc. 6. Other issues Investments in and development of European research infrastructure is vital to attract top researchers from outside Europe and to enhance the competitiveness of European researchers. It is fundamental that the investments are based on a clear European Added Value and that the operation of and access to these infrastructures is open to all researchers in Europe. VINNOVA is not the responsible agency for the Structural Funds (SF) at the national level. However, VINNOVA considers that there are important synergies to be taken into account between the CSF and SF. Such synergies can be enhanced through dedicated RTDI instruments in the SF with priority setting taking into account Europe 2020. A larger degree of interoperability between the future CSF and the SF is essential for this purpose. VINNOVA recognizes the further need for the European R&D programmes to include a bottom up approach for research. The European Research Council (ERC) has been a huge success and has gained recognition from many stakeholders. However, in light of the evident challenges identified in Europe 2020 and elsewhere, VINNOVA s view is that the ERC s share of the total budget should be maintained. Page 12 of 12