The European Commission has announced its new European Research Area which will support the Union’s transition towards climate neutrality and digital leadership whilst strengthening Europe’s resilience against future crises.
Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe Vestager, said: “The EU is already leading innovation through its research and scientific excellence. We want to build on that and step up our efforts towards achieving breakthrough market-driven innovations that will contribute to a green, digital Europe and will boost growth, job creation and our competitiveness in the global scene.”
The Commission has set out strategic objectives and actions to be implemented by Member States. The goal of these objectives is to prioritise investments to further reform European research and innovation. Additionally, the European Research Area will encourage climate neutrality and researchers’ mobility, skills, and career development opportunities within the EU.
Objectives of the European Research Area
Launched in 2000, the European Research Area has been incredibly successful, however the current societal, ecological, and economic challenges have prompted the Commission to better define and implement its key objectives. The European Commission has defined four strategic objectives:
- Prioritise investments and reforms in research and innovation towards climate neutrality and digital leadership, to support Europe’s recovery and increase competitiveness.
- Improve access to excellent facilities and infrastructures for researchers across the EU.
- Transfer results to the economy to boost business investments and market uptake of research output, as well as to foster EU competitiveness and leadership in the global technological setting.
- Strengthen mobility of researchers and the flow of knowledge and technology, through greater cooperation among Member States.
Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “We live in times when scientific activities require faster and effective collaborations. We need to strengthen the European Research Area, an area embracing all of Europe, because knowledge has no territorial boundaries, because scientific knowledge grows with collaborations, because knowledge is trusted if there is open scrutiny of its quality.”
