19 / 01 / 2024
EUA-EARTO-Science Europe Open letter on Investing more in RD&I
In this Open Letter to Ms Ivanova, EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, the European University Association (EUA), the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO), and Science Europe stress the crucial role that EU research and innovation investments play in addressing global challenges, boosting the EU’s global competitiveness, and reinforcing its strategic autonomy. With the design of the next EU R&I Framework Programme (FP10) on the horizon, ensuring its strong and sustainable budget is a necessary step towards realising the above-mentioned ambitious goals.
Europe is confronted with multifaceted and interdependent challenges such as climate change, health crises, and rising geopolitical tensions. At the same time, the global RD&I landscape is becoming increasingly competitive. While the EU’s RD&I investments have intensified over the past two decades, a noticeable gap persists when compared to its main global counterparts, particularly the United States and China.
As called for by the Members of the European Parliament Christian Ehler and Maria da Graça Carvalho, increasing the budget for FP10 to €200 billion is especially critical to enable Europe to find solutions to pressing societal challenges. An increased budget will not only bolster collaborative RD&I efforts across member states and leverage private investments, it will also enhance the use of shared resources, expertise, and infrastructures to address challenges that are increasingly transnational in nature and exceed the capabilities of individual countries.
Read the full Joint Open Letter here
