The policy conference
The policy conference formed the core of the European Research and Innovation Days.
Divided into ambitious plenary sessions spanning the depth and breadth of research and innovation in Europe, and specialised hubs covering 10 pivotal themes, it brought cutting-edge scientific research to concrete global problems.
Participants were able to choose from 10 hubs and engage with sessions that interested them. These sessions gave the opportunity to listen as experts shared their insights, and get involved in game-changing conversations about shaping the future.
Each hub had a virtual front desk providing information on hub-specific topics, breakout rooms for dedicated discussions and meetings and a virtual meeting room for policy sessions.
Also see:
Plenary
Opening Ceremony
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Anja Karliczek, Jean-Eric Paquet, Cristian-Silviu Bușoi
Ceremony : Handover of the EU Missions final reports
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Janusz Wojciechowski, Virginijus Sinkevičius, Stella Kyriakides, Pascal Lamy, Gualtiero W. Ricciardi, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Jean-Eric Paquet, Cees Veerman
The EU Missions delivered concrete benefits to Europeans by tackling pressing societal challenges. During the session, the European Commission received the advice of the five high-level Mission Boards who were tasked to identify potential EU Missions.
EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL & Just Transition
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Eimear Manning, Johan Rockström, Yousef Yousef, Jean-Eric Paquet, EVP Frans Timmermans, Dan Nica
This plenary session took an in-depth look at the research and innovation contribution to the European Green Deal and the recovery. It was future-oriented and took into account the youth perspective with a special focus on climate, ocean and biodiversity.
Towards a new EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA: Joining forces, aiming higher
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Anja Karliczek, Manuel Heitor, Simona Kustec, Markku Markkula, Jean-Eric Paquet
The session discussed the main novelties of the ERA communication including its contribution to build an excellent European R&I system for the benefit of all, and its new approach towards a wide outreach engaging all levels, MS, regions and citizens in this important endeavour.
PRIZE CEREMONY: Horizon Impact Award
Speakers : Signe Ratso, Anna Panagopoulou
Horizon Impact Award is the European Commission's initiative to recognise and celebrate outstanding projects that have used their results to provide value for society. The award aimed to show the wider socio-economic benefits of EU investment in research and innovation. The award enabled individuals or teams to showcase their best practices and achievements; and inspire beneficiaries of research and innovation funding to maximise the impact of their research.
PRIZE CEREMONY: Women Innovators
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel
This was the official award ceremony for the EU Prize for Women Innovators. First launched in 2011, the EU Prize for Women Innovators was created to raise awareness of the need for more female founders and create role models for women and girls. The prize is awarded every year to four talented women entrepreneurs from across the EU and Associated Countries, who have founded a successful company and brought innovation to market. Chosen by an independent jury of experts, this year’s finalists were pioneering game-changing innovations across a wide range of industries and help combat global challenges. Their innovations range from the optimisation of cancer treatments to generating clean electricity from ocean and sea waves.
EXCELLENCE & INCLUSIVENESS a Widening strategy to advancing Europe together
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Paulo Ferrão, Oliver Varhelyi, Jana Kolar, Indrek Reimand
Excellent EU R&I systems needs all silicon valleys across Europe to connect ensuring a reciprocal access to excellence and to maximise the spill-over for other actors in the R&I ecosystem to access the excellence produced in those.
All-inclusive RECOVERY for a stronger Europe
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Kate Raworth, Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Stéphanie Kelton, Carlota Perez, Mariana Mazzucato, Maria Demertzis
The coronavirus has shaken the whole world in an unprecedented manner, changing the way we live and work together. Top thought leaders debated how Europe can achieve a sustainable and inclusive recovery that boosts the resilience of our production sectors, the competitiveness of our economies and the transformation of our socio-economic systems with research and innovation leading the way.
NOBEL & KAVLI PRIZE LAUREATES on “Blue-sky research to prepare for an uncertain future” (European Research Council & The Kavli Prize)
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Prof. Robbert Dijkgraaf, Prof. Ewine van Dishoek, Sir Christopher Pissarides, Sir Peter Ratcliffe, Prof. Jennifer Doudna
Moderated by science star Robbert Dijkgraaf, Nobel Prize & Kavli Prize laureates discussed how curiosity-driven, blue sky science can help address major challenges we are facing and be prepared for an uncertain future in a post-COVID-19 world. Organised by the European Research Council and The Kavli Prize.
PRIZE CEREMONY: European Innovation Council Horizon Prize for Affordable High-Tech on Humanitarian Aid
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Janez Lenarčič, Jean-Eric Paquet
The €5 million prize was supported through Horizon 2020 as part of the European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot aimed to rewards the best, proven, cost-effective, technology-based solutions for humanitarian aid in 5 categories: 1) Shelter and related assistance; 2) Water, hygiene and sanitation; 3) Energy, 4) Health and medical care; and 5) an open category. Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, and Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, awarded the EIC Horizon Prize on Affordable High-Tech for Humanitarian Aid to the winners in each of the 5 categories who will each received €1 million.
PRIZE CEREMONY: iCapital
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Jean-Eric Paquet
The six finalists in the European Capital for Innovation Awards briefly presented their innovative city strategies, highlighting how they boost and open innovation ecosystems, enhance their capacity to connect individuals, public sector, academia, and businesses to deliver societal benefits for their communities, involve citizens in decision-making process, and use innovation to enhance the resilience and sustainability of their cities. Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel announced the 2020 European Capital of Innovation winner - an annual €1M cash prize - to the European city that is best able to demonstrate its ability to harness innovation to improve the lives of its citizens, and the five runners up – each one awarded with €100,000.
A vision of the R&I future Interview with Financial Times - Pre-recorded interview
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel
Letter of Intent (LoI) between the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the first wave Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) (Climate, Digital and Energy) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Jean David Malo, Diego Pavia, Martin Kern, Themis Christophidou, Gioia Ghezzi, Willem Jonker, Mark Ferguson, Jean-Eric Paquet, Kirsten Dunlop
SYNERGIES EUROPEAN EDUCATION AREA & EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA: Towards a knowledge strategy
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Maria da Graça Carvalho, Radovan Fuchs, Gareth O'Neill, Sari Lindblom, Jean-Marc Ogier
In confirming its position as a global leader across education, research and innovation, Europe needed to put its collective knowledge to work. Both the European Education Area (EEA) and the European Research Area (ERA) share values – such as democracy, tolerance, equality and non-discrimination – and common principles – such as integrity, academic freedom, trustworthiness, responsibility and openness. The European Knowledge Strategy connected ERA and EEA and mutually reinforced them to allow for coordinated education and research policies and investments. It made, in this way,a major contribution to implementing the Recovery Package. EEA and ERA jointly aimed at boosting the interaction between education, research and innovation to empower Europe's citizens, while contributing to a democratic, ethically responsible, well-informed, resilient and cohesive European society and competitive social market economy.
COVID-19 response: the EC making a difference and acting globally
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Peter Piot, Irene Norstedt, Soumya Swaminathan
The COVID pandemic has challenged our societies in unprecedented ways. The role of Research and Innovation in a wide range of areas and the coordination of international efforts have been critical. This session highlighted initiatives and ongoing actions at EC level to address the pandemic, including to through global cooperation. It also served to assess current progress and identify remaining challenges, as well as ways to improve preparedness for future threats. Speakers: Commissioner Gabriel, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist, WHO; Prof. Peter Piot, Director London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Special Adviser to President von der Leyen on the response to the coronavirus and COVID-19.
When Policy Meets Science: a conversation with an Astronaut
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Samantha Cristoforetti
Closing remarks: learning from the past, thinking about the future
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, EVP Margrethe Vestager, Cristian-Silviu Bușoi, Anja Karliczek, Jean-Eric Paquet
Hub 1 : Policy
More investment, better policies, stronger COOPERATION
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Magda De Carli, Mario Nava, Dragos Ciuparu, Normunds Popens
The session discussed how the EU can best support the national R&I policy reforms, what are the new instruments and funding sources for this purpose and how to combine these policy levers to ensure that all Member States advance, thus making Europe stronger. Focus was on the ERAdvance initiative, PSF, TSI and on the Member States’ experience in the policy reform process.
[Workshop] Social Innovation: A grassroots strategy and enabler of R&I policies in the European Research Area
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Maria da Graça Carvalho, Signe Ratso, FIlippo Addarii, Joe O’Brien T.D.
This session brought together EU and national politicians and social innovators to discuss visions of social innovation as a grassroots strategy, an enabler of R&I policies in the ERA, and a driver of the ecological and social transition.
[Workshop] Data for R&I Policy Initiative
Speakers : Anna Panagopoulou, Cecilia Cabello, Thomas Scherngell, Michael Keenan
Do you know how much you invest and can you compare your R&I investments to fight climate change or in Artificial Intelligence? How your national researchers cooperate with others? In this session, participants were able to join the conversations with frontrunners turning digitalization of R&I policy into a policy making booster.
Co-creating the EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA with the next three presidencies
Speakers : Anna Panagopoulou, Wilfried Kraus, Helena Pereira, Tomaz Boh, Marc Schiltz
In a pure spirit of partnership between the Commission and the Member States, this session offered an opportunity to get to know more in detail the proposed areas of intervention of the ERA Communication and to discuss with each of the three presidencies on what they focused and to provide feedback on their proposed actions.
The future of UNIVERSITIES in Europe: Supporting institutional transformations and the European University initiative
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Jan Palmowski, Michael Murphy, Sylvie Retailleau, Peter Greisler, Themis Christophidou
Europe’s academic sector plays a crucial part in Europe’s recovery and is a key actor in addressing digital and green transitions. ERA was expected to strengthen the R&I dimension of higher education institutions through a comprehensive transformation agenda in synergy with the European Education Area and the European Universities initiative, reinforcing their role as essential drivers of change
Towards an OPEN SCIENCE VISION for 2030
Speakers : Bernard Rentier, Eva Méndez, Rebecca Lawrence, Jeroen Geurts, Kostas Glinos
In this session two members of the European Open Science Policy Platform (OSPP) were interviewed on the proposals of the OSPP to advance further open science. The main topic for discussion was the system for assessing research and for rewarding and incentivising researchers to practice open science, which has been identified as a main bottleneck for advancing open science. There was also a discussion with invited guests and an opportunity for the audience to interact.
[Workshop] Co-creating a modern European Knowledge Valorisation Policy
Speakers : Dietrich Nelle, Davide Iannuzzi, Peter Dröll, Ciegotura Justyna
A discussion with stakeholders on the future valorisation policy updating the 2008 Recommendation on the management of IP in knowledge transfer activities and Code of Practice for universities and other public research organisations
SCIENTIFIC ADVICE to inform policymaking, balancing speed with certainty on emerging policy challenges
Speakers : Barbara Prainsack, Peter Piot, Paul Nurse, Renzo Tomellini, Pearl Dykstra, Carrie Wolinetz
On the basis of the recent joint statement and learning from the current crisis, the panel discussed challenges and best practices in providing scientific advice to policy makers in times of uncertainty and complexity.
Strengthening cross-country and cross-sectoral TALENTS CIRCULATION (ERA4YOU)
Speakers : Anna Panagopoulou, Ludovic Thilly, Gareth O'Neill, Antoaneta Angelova-Krasteva, Romana Jordan, Luisa Henriques
Europe is endowed with an abundant and varied pool of talented researchers who on a daily basis push out the scientific frontier in key strategic areas. If we are to deliver on the ambitious objectives of i.a. the Green Deal, health, and digital transformation, Europe also needs to become a frontrunner in the global race for talent, an irresistible pole of attraction for the world’s top researchers. Excellent research environments are a prerequisite; attractive working conditions and decent remuneration a necessity; often, these require reforms of national R&I systems. Being attractive to foreign researchers will automatically also imply being attractive to Europe’s own researchers from all geographical regions in Europe, as two sides of the same coin. This transformation process by definition combines excellence and inclusiveness, (1) balancing circulation of talents geographically, and (2) increase talent and knowledge circulation inter-sectorally, for the benefit of an inclusive and connected ERA talent community.
RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES: The engine of the European Research Area
Speakers : John Womersley, Yannis Ioannidis, Jean-Eric Paquet, Karina Angelieva
RIs are a key element in the delivery of ERA connecting and boosting resources, people and data. As a next step connections were created across domains to create knowledge hubs targeting the main societal challenges.
Hub 2 : European Green Deal
[Workshop] Role of bioeconomy in the EU post-COVID recovery
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Wolfgang Burtscher, Barna Kovacs, Fabio Fava, Christine Lang, Elisabetta Balzi
The aim of this webinar was to discuss the role of the bioeconomy in the post-COVID recovery of the European Union and its Member States. The European Commission’s proposed recovery instrument Next Generation EU, with a strong budget of €750 billion, will support EU Member States in their efforts to recover, repair and emerge stronger from the crisis, while accelerating the green transition.
UNCROSSING PLANETARY BOUNDARIES: How to get nutrient flows back within safe ecological limits?
Speakers : John Bell, Mark A. Sutton, Chiara Manoli, Jannes Maes, Katja Klasinc
Experts from different fields linked to nutrients discussed the environmental impacts of excessive nutrient flows and the possible solutions and barriers for bringing the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles within safe regional and planetary boundaries.
R&I to accelerate CLEAN ENERGY TRANSITION, a core pillar for matching climate targets
Speakers : Patrick Child, Lena Kitzing, Nicola Rossi, Sandrine Dixson-Declève
Decarbonising energy through using clean energy everywhere will be crucial to reach both 2030 and 2050 objectives. This session looked at how R&I could support a systemic change in all the energy system and an increase of competitiveness of renewable energy and energy enablers.
[Workshop] Circular and Bio-based: towards a carbon neutral and sustainable economy
Speakers : John Bell, Edgar Hertwich, Catia Bastioli, Janez Potočnik, Petra Goyens, Ester Van der Voet
The aim of the session was to provide a forum of discussion about of the potential of circular bioeconomy and in particular its bio-based sector to deliver on the European Green Deal objectives and to contribute to the EU climate neutrality and other sustainable development goals.
Building a POST-COVID FOOD SYSTEM ECONOMY that works for people, planet and climate
Speakers : John Bell, Johan Swinnen, Silke Thiele, Ana Moragues
Food must be treated less as a commodity and more as a common good. This session explored alternative models for a new multi-objective food systems economy that can meet the EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy objectives.
Sustainability-by-Design. Embedding sustainability criteria throughout life cycle of products and processes
Speakers : Victor Mougel, Joel Tickner, Jovana Milic, Peter Dröll, Saori Dubourg, Xenia Trier
Young scientists have challenged senior experts on sustainable-by-design approaches in different fields. In this session, participants contributed to the discussion and shaped together a safe, carbon-neutral and resource efficient industrial eco-system.
[Workshop] Building and renovating in an energy and resource efficient way
Speakers : Pavel Podruh, Christiane Egger, Paul Cartuyvels, Hélène Chraye
This session discussed how R&I can support the design and construction of new and renovated buildings in line with the needs of a decarbonised and circular economy, leading to increased health- and climate-proofing of the building stock.
[Workshop] Clean Steel and Transport: EU moves green
Speakers : Maria da Graça Carvalho, Kjersti Kleven, Peter Dröll, Tommaso Ghidini, Mario Caldonazzo
The Session explored the role played by steel in transport and infrastructures, focusing on the production of 'Clean Steel' and fostering synergies between steel and transport sectors. The importance of clean transport to keep EU citizens connected was also addressed.
The opportunity to halt BIODIVERSITY loss
Speakers : John Bell, Josefina Enfedaque, Daisy Hessenberger, Stephen Hart, Anne Larigauderie, Paul Hebert, Hilde Eggermont, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema
The session showed how Horizon Europe will support the European Green Deal through science, research & innovation. It improved our understanding of biodiversity decline and drove action for biodiversity & ecosystems protection & restoration, by promoting nature-based solutions & sustainable management of natural capital.
CLEAN TRANSPORT: Acting now for a green recovery!
Speakers : Patrick Child, Herald Ruijters, Thierry Hours, Alan McKinnon, Grazia Vittadini
The session informed and discussed how R&I activities for clean transport can contribute to Climate Change mitigation and to achieving the objectives of the European Green Deal, in the context of economic recovery.
Horizon 2020 EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL CALL Info Day – Presentation of the Call
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, John Bell, Silvia Abad, Bernd Biervert, Victoria Beaz Hidalgo, Victoria Beaz Hidalgo
Chairs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvpwIjZTs-LiQU4JzjmWwecNoFPeTqT3n
Open session where high-level speakers delivered the political messages and presented the Horizon 2020 European Green Deal Call.
[Workshop] Horizon 2020 EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL CALL Info Day – Presentation of the Call areas & topics
Parallel sessions where the different Horizon 2020 European Green Deal Call areas and topics were presented 1.1 Preventing and Fighting Wildfires + 1.3 Climate-resilient Innovation Packages for EU regions 1.2 -Towards climate –neutral and socially innovative cities 2. Clean, affordable and secure energy 3. Industry for a clean and circular economy 4. Energy and resource efficient buildings 5. Sustainable and smart mobility 6. Farm to fork 7. Biodiversity and ecosystems 8. Zero-pollution, toxic-free environments 9. Strengthening knowledge 10. Empowering citizens.
[Workshop] Horizon 2020 EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL CALL Info day - Brokerage event
Pitching event and matchmaking.
[Workshop] Design Thinking Workshop-Transition Super Labs: Living Labs for the Just Transition to Climate-neutrality, in partnership with EIT Climate-KIC
Speakers : John Bell, Kirsten Dunlop
This workshop required active participation from all participants: Co-organised with EIT Climate-KIC’s Transitions Hub & Deep Demonstrators team to collect ideas and foster a dialogue with a wide range of stakeholders on the potential of the Transition Super Labs and to act as living labs on the road to a just climate transition.
Hub 3 : Digitalisation
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & Robotics, Today & Tomorrow
Speakers : Barbara Caputo, Stefano Stramigioli, Ana Maria Stancu, Laure Le Bars
The session discussed the challenges for the European strategic approach to AI, Robotics and Data in the research area with leading experts from academia, industry and public bodies.
[Workshop] Towards European Sovereignty and Autonomy in AI
Speakers : Ioannis Kompatsiaris, Bernhard Schölkopf, Rita Cucchiara, Nuria Oliver, Michela Milano
The purpose of this session was to discuss how the different European initiatives will interact and boost their own resources to establish the basis for the European sovereignty and autonomy in AI. The session began with an inspiring set the scene presentation and was followed by an inspiring panel addressing different initiatives and their cooperation.
Mitigating gender & ethnicity BIASES IN AI
Speakers : Alice Bah Kuhnke, Meredith Whittaker, Roger A. Søraa, Peter Dröll, Catelijne Muller
This session highlighted how the intersections of gender, ethnicity, and other identities shape people’s experiences with AI and discussed how Europe is addressing bias and discrimination in AI Systems. The session built on the case studies on facial recognition and on virtual assistants and chatbots developed by the Commission’s expert group on Gendered Innovations, and their proposed methodologies for Analysing Gender and Intersectionality in Machine Learning and in Social Robots.
[Workshop] AI, data and robotics – building wider synergies around Europe
Speakers : Fabian Kohler, Thomas Hahn, Cécile Huet
The coordinated action plan on AI calls for building national AI strategies around Europe. This session explored the potential to deepen synergies among Europe and national AI initiatives, the European partnership on AI, Data, and Robotics, within the context of Horizon Europe & Digital Europe.
[Workshop] The future of health data management: Latest research on data processing and energy-efficient data hosting
Speakers : Endika Bengoetxea, Natasa Pržulj , David Atienza Alonso, Giovanni Felici
The future demands technologies which provide hosting and data processing capabilities to increasingly vast amounts of heterogeneous data in biomedicine, while at the same time computer systems must be energy efficient. Can these two goals be fulfilled at the same time? This session presented two ongoing ERC projects on these two targets, illustrating how recent discoveries affected the way in which we operate health data and the design of these computer systems.
Data for HEALTH
Speakers : Niklas Blomberg, Milan Petković, Anett Madi-Nator, Helen Johnson, Ceri Thompson
With the outbreak and rapid spread of COVID-19 in the world, the importance of availability and exchange of data to better predict, model, control and cure diseases has become even more evident than before. The session gave the opportunity to reflect on the level of preparedness of the EU for this health crisis, in terms of secure and interoperable exchange of health data, resilience of health systems and facilities, and the need for enhanced EU cooperation on making health data more available for better prevention and personalised treatment, also by speeding up the deployment of the European Health Data Space. The session also touched upon the need to enhance research and deployment of AI, machine learning and data mining for better prevention and more effective health treatments.
Ethics and Artificial Intelligence in MEDICAL RESEARCH: Can We Have It All?
Speakers : Gry Hasselbalch, Nicky Hekster, Janosch Delcker, Siobhan O'Sullivan
The intention of this session was to deliberate on the ways for maximising the benefits that AI may bring in the healthcare sector while avoiding situations where these may come at a ‘price’ to ethics.
[Workshop] Facilitating data reusability across industrial sectors: the Industry Commons
Speakers : Nadja Adamovic, Yanaris Ortega Garcia, Peter Dröll, Michela Magas, Javier Sanfelix
The economic impact of data is huge. Yet, only a tiny share of industrial data is captured and used for value creation. This session discussed R&I initiatives which mitigate barriers to industrial data reusability and facilitate the unlocking of value from data.
New SKILLS for New Times
Speakers : Alice Grazia, Paola Salomoni, Iker Martínez de Soria, Julia Anderson, Alexander Riedl
The pandemic has accelerated the transition to the digital economy and society. Business and public sector organisations are turning towards digital technologies to stay operational and relevant. Europe, not only, faces a massive digital skills gap with 42% of Europeans not having basic digital skills. There is also a lack of digital experts who can help develop innovative solutions and redesign the way services are used and delivered. 58% of companies that tried to hire digital experts in 2019 reported it was problematic to fill vacancies.
Towards a Champions League for Transition to SUSTAINABILITY
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Peter Dröll, Pierre Vigier, Daniela Benavente, Frédéric Simon, Patrizia Heidegger, Rutger Hoekstra, Roman Arjona, Mario Biggeri
Last year’s R&I days session on “Re-defining prosperity’’ with key note speakers Kate Raworth and Sandrine Dixon, took stock of existing definitions and indicators regarding sustainability and stimulated new thinking about economics. One year later, with the European Green Deal and a new Recovery Package at sight , DG R&I was ready to present a conceptual framework to rank the EU Member States and 45 other countries on how they perform across the four dimensions of sustainability: economic, social, environmental and governance.
The future of work
Speakers : Barbara Prainsack, Isabelle Barthès, Xabier Goenaga, George Tilesch, Anne K. Fahlvik
The session addressed the key challenges linked to the future of work and examined how research and innovation can contribute to mitigating the effects of the transformative trends to the lives of people.
Hub 4 : Horizon Europe
[Workshop] “Co-designing Horizon Europe – Interactive Session on Cluster 4: Digital Industry and Space”
Speakers : Peter Dröll, Lorena Boix Alonso, Slawek Tokarski, Matthias Petschke
The Horizon Europe Strategic Planning process aims at identifying key orientations for R&I investments starting from the main political priorities of the European Union, especially the green and digital transitions as well as Europe’s recovery from the crisis. Following the success of a first round of intense co-design activities with stakeholders and citizens, this session was part of a new round of interactive discussions focusing on the expected impacts of “Cluster 4: Digital, Industry and Space” and the contribution of R&I policy for achieving them (as well as relevant European Partnerships). The results of these discussions were taken into account for the finalization of the draft Strategic Plan document and the preparation of the first Horizon Europe Work programme.
SYNERGIES: New opportunities on the Horizon
Speakers : Gernot Marx, Lowri Evans, Sabine Klok, Paul Webb, Philippe Mengal
With reference to Annex IV of the Horizon Europe Regulations, this session demonstrated the importance of synergies between Horizon Europe and other EU policies and programmes, presented the current efforts and state of play, and considered how to realise synergies by design as a built-in part of EU actions in the future.
[Workshop] Co-design Session “HE partnerships transitioning to more effective Open Science and Open innovation – How EOSC can help you"
Speakers : Dominique Darmendrail, Sarah Jones, Thorsten Kiefer, Karel Luyben, Maria Reinfeldt, John Kalafut
The purpose of the session was to present opportunities (arising from the EOSC partnership agenda towards Open Science and FAIR data management) and stimulate a future multilateral collaboration among partnerships (e.g. common use cases, linking thematic clouds and the EOSC ecosystem, articulating the EOSC data space with other data spaces).
[Workshop] A European Excellence Initiative, support for universities – what’s next?
Speakers : Anna Panagopoulou, Jamil Salmi, Gareth O'Neill, Stefan Weiers, Gerhard Duda, Per Michael Johansen, Delaure Stijn
The aim of this workshop was to discuss what could be the next step for a European Excellence Initiative, learning from past national practices, from best practices examples in institutional transformations, and from impact analyses on the existing excellence initiatives worldwide. How can Europe move from a large-scale excellence and cooperation capacity building effort towards highly competitive university networks playing in a global context, while at the same time ensuring inclusion? How can these excellence alliances significantly raise the attractiveness of Europe for foreign talents, for the general internationalisation of the European University sector in R&I, and for attracting investments, notably in innovation?
[Workshop] Co-design session Horizon Europe - Cluster 6 - Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
The Horizon Europe Strategic Planning process aims at identifying key orientations for R&I investments starting from the main political priorities of the European Union, especially the green and digital transitions. Following the success of a first round of intense co-design activities with stakeholders and citizens, this session was part of a new round of interactive discussions focusing on the expected impacts of Cluster 6 and the contribution of R&I policy for achieving them. The results of these discussions were taken into account for the finalization of the draft Strategic Plan and the preparation of the first Horizon Europe Work Programme
Dealing with REGULATORY BARRIERS TO INNOVATION: From theory to practice
Speakers : Signe Ratso, Laura González-Estéfani, Konstantin Kolloge, Nicoline Breed, Eric Ruwiel, William Todts, Julien Guerrier
This session focused on regulatory barriers to innovation based on existing networks of regulatory sandboxes in Europe, national schemes for tackling regulatory barriers, experience of business accelerators, EU pilot innovation deals and the ambitions of Horizon Europe Missions for solving burning societal and environmental problems. Participants discussed regulatory barriers to innovation in the context of wider public policy objectives of encouraging sustainable innovation and promoting uptake of clean technologies.
[Workshop] Co-design Session “Widening: learning from the past and creating the future"
Speakers : Jana Kolar, Katarzyna Walcyk-Matuszyk, Frank Peck
Practical discussion on the future of widening instruments going more in a detail to the implementation of projects and their impact, future design of the Work Programme. The strategy document on Widening served as a background document for discussion.
[Workshop] Manifesto for EU COVID-19 Research: Maximising the Accessibility of Research Results in the Fight Against COVID-19
Speakers : Peter Dröll, Silvia Gomez Recio, Siobhan Horan, Michaela Mayrhofer, Renaud Dehousse
On July 20 the Commission launched a Manifesto to maximise the accessibility of research results in the fight against COVID-19. The Manifesto provides guiding principles for beneficiaries of EU research grants for coronavirus prevention, testing, treatment and vaccination to ensure that their research results will be accessible for all and guarantee a return on public investment. The manifesto is also open to signature by any other stakeholder. The session aimed at presenting the Manifesto, clarifying doubts and exchanging views on its implementation.
Impact lab: Estimating the climate IMPACT OF HORIZON PROJECTS
Speakers : Paul Ekins, Julien Guerrier, Mafalda Duarte
This session focused on climate impact of research and innovation projects contributing to achieving a climate neutral Europe by 2050. Participants discussed different pathways towards impact, current challenges and opportunities. Participants had an opportunity to co-create the future Horizon Europe impact tool kits in particular the climate impact survey that will be tested within the Green Deal Call 2020.
[Workshop] Co-designing Horizon Europe – Interactive Session on Cluster 3 – supporting the achievement of the Security Union strategic objectives through Security Research
Speakers : Andrea De Candido, Jeanette Klonk, Gregory Mounier, Babak Akhgar, Michel Cadic
The Horizon Europe Strategic Planning process aims at identifying key orientations for R&I investments starting from the main political priorities of the European Union. In the security dimension the Commission has recently adopted a new Security Union Strategy that creates a multidisciplinary, coordinated and integrated approach to security to be taken forward at EU level in 2020-2024. Following the success of a first round of intense co-design activities with stakeholders and citizens, this session was part of a new round of interactive discussions and focused on the Cluster 3 expected impacts relation to the internal security dimension of the overall Security Union objectives and on the potential of R&I in enabling their achievement. The results of these discussions were taken into account for the finalisation of the draft Strategic Plan document and the preparation of the first Horizon Europe Work programme.
[Workshop] Co-design Session “Get ready: A new ERA for Equality is calling”
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Marcela Linková, Curt Rice
Horizon Europe brings a step change in fostering an institutional transformation and scientific excellence. Participants learned more on EC’s commitment to strengthen gender equality provisions in Horizon Europe, and to advance inclusive gender equality plans, as an eligibility criterion.
[Workshop] Co-designing Horizon Europe – Interactive session on Cluster 5 – Climate, Energy, Mobility”
[Workshop] Co-designing Horizon Europe – Interactive Session on Cluster Health
The Horizon Europe Strategic Planning process aimed at identifying key orientations for R&I investments starting from the main political priorities of the European Union, especially the green and digital transitions as well as Europe’s recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic. Following the success of a first round of intense co-design activities with stakeholders and citizens, this session was part of a new round of interactive discussions focusing on the expected impacts of Cluster Health and the contribution of R&I for achieving them, including through European partnerships. The results of these discussions were taken into account in the strategic planning process with the finalization of the first Strategic Plan of Horizon Europe for the years 2021-2024. Watch the replay
Protect, prepare, and transform Europe in a POST-COVID world: the ESIR vision
Speakers : Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Francisca Martins, Kirsten Dunlop, Céline Charveriat, Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Andrea Renda
As Europe is facing deep societal, ecologic and economic challenges, a transformative R&I policy is needed to ensure a sustainable future. The panel, led by the ESIR high-level group of experts, discussed how R&I can help to protect, prepare, and transform Europe in a post-COVID world and beyond. Watch the replay
[Workshop] Co-design Session "Nuclear technologies for a healthier world?"
Speakers : Patrick Child, Michael Hübel, Christoph Hoeschen, Said Abousahl, Elena Righi Steele, Hildegarde Vandenhove, Elisabeth Cardis, Irene Norstedt
Nuclear and radiation technology offers immense opportunities in the field of modern medicine, providing solutions to some of Europe's most pressing societal challenges, like diagnosis and treatment of cancer, heart disease and many other health conditions.
[Workshop] Co-design session Cluster 2 - Culture Creativity and Inclusive Society
Speakers : Katja Reppel, Bianca Busuioc, Andrea Filippetti, Pascale Lievaux, Michael Sondermann, Ann Uustalu, Luca Lixi, Maria Kayamanidou, Harald Hartung, Frank Siebern Thomas
Cluster 2, ‘Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society’ aimed to meet EU goals and priorities on enhancing democratic governance and citizens participation, on the safeguarding and promotion of cultural heritage, and to respond to multifaceted social, economic, technological and cultural transformations. Activities contributed to expanding civic engagement, boosting transparency, accountability, inclusiveness and legitimacy of governance, improving levels of trust and tackling political extremism. Activities within the Cluster also promoted better access and engagement with cultural heritage, arts and creative sectors as a driver of sustainable innovation and a European sense of belonging and improve its protection, enhancement and restoration as well as the access to our common heritage through new technologies, high quality digitisation and curation of digital heritage assets. Research and innovation supported sustainable growth and job creation through contributing to a European industrial policy for the cultural and creative industries. At the same time, actions helped tackle social, economic and political inequalities, support human capital development and contribute to a comprehensive European strategy for inclusive growth. This also involved understanding and responding to the impacts of technological advancements and economic interconnectedness with a view to social resilience. Finally, the Cluster supported EU migration and mobility policies, both internal and external, while aiming to promote integration.
[Workshop] Co-design session Horizon Europe - Cluster 6 - Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
The Horizon Europe Strategic Planning process aimed at identifying key orientations for R&I investments starting from the main political priorities of the European Union, especially the green and digital transitions. Following the success of a first round of intense co-design activities with stakeholders and citizens, this session was part of a new round of interactive discussions focusing on the expected impacts of Cluster 6 and the contribution of R&I policy for achieving them. The results of these discussions were taken into account for the finalization of the draft Strategic Plan and the preparation of the first Horizon Europe Work Programme.
[Workshop] Synergies – Innovative instruments for implementation
Speakers : Paul Webb, Philippe Mengal, Ann Mettler, Bart Biebuyck
To maximize synergies and boost impact, it is essential to offer the best possible conditions for the deployment of innovative solutions. This requires intense interaction with the private sector and the banking sector, and the use of innovative ways to get results. In this session, we briefly presented selected initiatives and instruments, and considered how research funders can “go the extra mile” to make synergies happen, making use of existing instruments and creating new ones.
[Workshop] Co-designing Horizon Europe – Interactive Session on Cluster 4: Digital Industry and Space
The Horizon Europe Strategic Planning process aimed at identifying key orientations for R&I investments starting from the main political priorities of the European Union, especially the green and digital transitions as well as Europe’s recovery from the crisis. Following the success of a first round of intense co-design activities with stakeholders and citizens, this session was part of a new round of interactive discussions focusing on the expected impacts of “Cluster 4: Digital, Industry and Space” and the contribution of R&I policy for achieving them, (as well as relevant European Partnerships). The results of these discussions will be taken into account for the finalization of the draft Strategic Plan document and the preparation of the first Horizon Europe Work programme.
EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIPS: Stepping up the game
Speakers : Hilde Eggermont, Henric Johnson, Àngels Orduña, Darja Isaksson, Janez Potočnik
How can European Partnerships step up efforts to achieve the transitions that Europe needs? The session looked at some of the proposed Partnerships for answers. It continued the high-level discussion in R&I Days last year on the new policy approach to Partnerships.
[Workshop] ESIR breakout session “Universities and their adaptation strategies for the post-corona world”
Speakers : Francisca Martins, Céline Charveriat, Daria Tataj, Sylvia Schwaag Serger, Francesca Bria
The current pandemic might be the beginning of a new social and economic system for Europe. The disruption to current systems has not been more profound since the roll out of the Internet marking a new era. This crisis poses existential challenges to millions of citizens and to our sustainable growth with the respect for our planet. We need to protect and prepare for the future. To this end, we need a new type of leadership - leaders who can work across the entire ecosystems to drive transformation - from the level of a single organization to the city or region. We are all interconnected, networked and from now all digital. Until recently we spoke about skill for the future - the future is now and we must quickly learn how to boost our network intelligence, our collective brain power, progressive communities and networks. To mitigate challenges and to lead system innovation, the role of universities is critical. What would be the leadership role of universities in the context of the post-corona world?
[Workshop] ESIR breakout session “Protecting, preparing and transforming EU industry”
Speakers : Andrea Renda, Uma Amara Rani, Erik Berglof, Jennifer Bair, Pierre-Alexandre Balland
The impact of COVID-19 on global value chains has been massive, leading many countries and businesses to rethink their supply chain management and design to limit the risk of disruption. Will this be a temporary reorganisation, or a permanent one, coupled with the repatriation of production? What role will digital technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things and Robotics play in this process? Will this lead to developing countries being left completely out of global value chains? Or, will this become an opportunity to “build back better”, in more equitable, sustainable and resilient way? The discussion was extremely important also for EU policymakers, who face very important questions and challenges. The European Commission released an industrial strategy in March 2020, at a time in which the extent of the pandemic was still largely unknown. Does the EU industrial strategy deserve a thorough rethink, only a few weeks from its adoption? At the end of May, the European Commission then adopted a massive recovery package anchored in Europe’s Green Deal. Does the Next Generation EU Package offer the right mix of instruments to ensure that the EU protects its industry, prepares it for the current and upcoming challenges, and transforms it to bring it back to a more sustainable and resilient path? This panel discussion was also crucial for the future of Research and Innovation Policy in the EU. What is the role of innovation in modernising industry? What role will be played by large-scale initiatives such as the Missions, the Partnerships, the IPCEIs? What impacts will the EU industrial strategy have on third countries, and on the future of global value chains?
[Workshop] ESIR breakout session “Cities, regions, and nations”
Speakers : Kirsten Dunlop, Tomaz Boh, Santiago Saura, Montserrat Mir Roca, Enrique Lopez, Frederik Moch, Piotr Masłowski, Xabier Barandiaran
Following on from the ESIR group Open Panel discussion, this breakout session investigated the places and spaces and communities in Europe where work on transformative change, through innovation, is underway despite or even accelerated by the impact of COVID-19. The discussion highlighted lessons being learned from ‘case studies in motion’ to provide invaluable inputs to EU policymakers and decision makers.
[Workshop] Co-designing Horizon Europe – Interactive Session on Cluster 3 – supporting the achievement of the Security Union strategic objectives in Cybersecurity
The Horizon Europe Strategic Planning process aims at identifying key orientations for R&I investments starting from the main political priorities of the European Union. The 2nd panel on Cluster 3 focused on the Cybersecurity research and innovation and the expected impacts supporting the implementation of the Security Union, especially in the context of the Network and Information Systems Directive, the Cybersecurity Act and the Cybersecurity Competence Centre. The results of these discussions were taken into account for the finalisation of the draft Strategic Plan document and the preparation of the first Horizon Europe Work Programme.
[Workshop] Co-designing Horizon Europe – Interactive session on Cluster 5 – Climate, Energy, Mobility
FORESIGHT for a resilient Europe in the post-COVID world
Speakers : Duncan Cass-Beggs, Nikos Kastrinos, Peter Varnai, Sylvia Schwaag Serger, VP Maroš Šefčovič, Fabiana Scapolo, Florence Gaub
The COVID 19 pandemic has provided ample opportunity for foresight. The uncertainty and the continuous evolution of scientific findings, knowledge and understandings have been ground for fertile imagination as well as analyses that fed policy responses on the ground. Amidst the pandemic, the first European Foresight Report aptly focused on Europe’s resilience. The session took the opportunity of the preparation of the European Foresight Report to discuss the relations between science, foresight and policy in the European Union, focussing on the effects of, and lessons from the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic for foresight and R&I policy.
[Workshop] Co-design Session “Increasing the Impact of EU R&I with Social Innovation”
Speakers : Olivier De Schutter, Philippe Martin
The objective of the session resided with increasing the impact of EU R&I strategic priorities by leveraging social innovation. How can social innovation play this role? By engaging society in the co-design, co-development, co-implementation, and use of key digital and enabling/emerging technologies, by enlisting citizens and local communities in the bioeconomy revolution, by making people drivers of a digitally led circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy and by fostering inclusiveness. The integration of social innovation in Horizon Europe conditions its role as an impact multiplier. The session invited participants to share and confront their views on how, where, and when to do that.
Hub 5 : Horizon Europe Missions
Mission area: OCEANS
Speakers : John Bell, Pascal Lamy, Eugénia Barroca, Markus Reymann, Evelina Šanta-Kahle, James Honeyborne
The session illustrated the benefits the ocean and waters bring to our citizens, how to mobilise society to co-create solutions to recover and restore our ocean and waters, to change the way we act, consume, do business and make policies. Together we can shape a better, bluer future for our Planet.
Horizon Europe Missions: CITIZENS ENGAGEMENT
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Maria da Graça Carvalho, Signe Ratso, Pascal Lamy, Anthony Zacharzewski, Liva Vikmane, VP Dubravka Šuica
Co-designing & involving citizens in EU missions will lead to a European collective intelligence. This roundtable focused on the lessons learned so far and how listening and engaging Europeans in the EU agenda setting is changing policymaking.
Mission area: CLIMATE
Speakers : Markku Markkula, Lydia González Fernández, Yvon Slingenberg, Pirita Lindholm, Connie Hedegaard
The session provided a platform to present the Mission proposal on “Adaptation to climate change, including societal transformation” and to kick-start discussions between EU regions and other relevant stakeholders on climate resilience and their involvement in the Mission.
Mission area: SOIL
Speakers : Teresa Pinto-Correia, Bastien Sachet, Alfred Grand, Wolfgang Burtscher, Mariana Debernardini
Life depends on healthy soils for the provision of food, clean water, biodiversity, climate resilience and other functions. Soil is a fragile and threatened resource. The Mission “Caring for soils is caring for life” aims to ensure that by 2030, EU soils are safeguarded for future generations. Watch the replay
[Workshop] Breakout meeting on Mission Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters
Speakers : John Bell, Pascal Lamy, Eimear Manning, Genevieve Pons, Peter Heffernan, Darko Manakovski, Charlina Vitcheva, Viorel Vulturescu
The aim of the session was to provide a platform for an open discussion with the Mission Board, Assembly and Members of the Horizon Europe Shadow Programme Committee Sub-Group on the feedback from the stakeholder and citizen engagement, and to reflect on how to implement its outcomes. The outcomes of the session fed into the further developments and the implementation of the future Mission Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters.
Mission area: CITIES
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Mohamed Ridouani, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Kate Raworth, Lina Galvez
Interactive panel discussion on the Horizon Europe Cities Mission, supplemented with perspectives on the Doughnut Economy model, citizen engagement and R&I in Europe and beyond.
Mission area: CANCER
Speakers : Gualtiero W. Ricciardi, Véronique Trillet-Lenoir, Christine Chomienne, Ivica Belina, Veronika Von Messling, Mikko Viitanen, Eva-Maria Strömsholm, Irene Norstedt
Cancer has become the first cause of death in an increasing number of European countries. Key actors, end-users debated on how to deliver on the cancer Mission’s main goal: how to save more than three million lives, living longer and better by 2030?
[Workshop] 100 Climate-neutral Cities by 2030 – Investment Strategy
Speakers : Julio Lumbreras, Emmanuel Forest, Shiva Dustdar, Francoise Guaspare
Reaching 100 climate-neutral cities by 2030 is the objective identified by the Mission Board for Climate-neutral and Smart Cities in their interim report. A Mission in this area would support, promote and show case 100 European cities in their systemic transformation towards climate neutrality by 2030 and make these cities into experimentation and innovation hubs for all cities.
Hub 6 : Smart implementation & Synergies
[Workshop] Horizon Results Platform - Making results matter
Speakers : Jacopo Losso, Eugene Sweeney, Camille Lépinay, Jama Nateqi, Stéphane N’Dong
Our panel of Innovation experts, stakeholders, angel investors and inspiring entrepreneurs discussed how to turn your research results into value added innovations – how to best use and protect your IP, how to prepare and converse with investors, where to look for help in your countries and much more!
Simplification in implementation of the NEW MULTIANNUAL FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK: The role of Horizon Europe
Speakers : Anna Panagopoulou, Wilfried Kraus, Olivier Waelbroeck, Antonio Rotolo
The new R&I Programme, Horizon Europe was just around the corner. With almost 100bn Euros of EU funding, HE remains one of the flagship Programmes of the new MFF as was its predecessor Horizon 2020. The discussion revolved around the way Horizon Europe will be implemented in practice. What are the novelties the programme will bring? What lessons were learned from the experience of the H2020? How the implementation modalities will reinforce and enable the main objectives of the programme itself?
EUROPEAN INSTITUTE OF INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY AND EUROPEAN INNOVATION COUNCIL: Walking the Talk
Speakers : Kurt Höller, Catherine Schreiber, Gioia Ghezzi, Marja Makarow, Sirli Sipp Kulli
The session aimed at discussing opportunities for concrete synergies between EIT and EIC, by leveraging on the work of the joint EIC-EIT working group, including key elements of the future strategic framework for cooperation.
[Workshop] Quality, transparency and fairness in Horizon Europe proposal evaluation
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Marc Tachelet, Heidi Paju, Mathilde Reumaux, Alan Cross, Isabelle Vergara
How can we design the best possible proposal evaluation, adapted for the new features of Horizon Europe, building on the experience of previous programmes, and learning from the experience of other funding bodies?
[Workshop] A Control Strategy for a highly performing Horizon Europe
Speakers : Dinos Alevizopoulos, Peter Haertwich
Better control rather than more control is the key guiding principle of the risk-based HE Control Strategy. More attention was devoted to the early detection of emerging risks of irregularity. For ex-post control, the emphasis was put on cross-reliance on audits as well as risk-based controls. System and Process Audits were introduced. Circular feedback mechanism between the two arms of control were reinforced, and more attention to fraud prevention and detection will be paid under the next MFF.
[Workshop] The HE MGA – The catalyst for simplification & synergies with other programmes
Speakers : Anna Panagopoulou, Annika Thies, Erik Hansalek, Reinhard Schulte, Victoria Gil Casado
Simplification and enhancing synergies are key guiding principle for the implementation strategy for Horizon Europe. In that respect, Horizon Europe will use the new corporate Model Grant Agreement (MGA), allowing for harmonisation across EU programmes and thus enabling synergies between programmes. What are the novelties? What lessons were learned from the experience of the H2020? How the corporate provisions will reinforce and enable simplification and synergies across the board?
Promoting OUTREACH & CO-CREATION with Member States on Horizon Europe Implementation: The way forward
Speakers : Karina Angelieva, Anna Panagopoulou, Līga Lejina, Cornelia Schneider, Carmen Castresana
The positive results and impact of the first Outreach activities under H2020 have paved the way and bring to the forefront a complete Outreach strategy as a key part of the implementation of the new Horizon Europe. An Outreach strategy in Horizon Europe was based on a wide set of activities in order to inform, involve and interact with the Programme stakeholders.
[Workshop] Easing access through digital transformation & outreach: the Funding & Tenders Portal
Speakers : Anna Panagopoulou, Gerrie Smits, Elke Lammertyn, Thomas Gageik
The debate focused on the way the F&T Portal should continue supporting the interaction between external participants and the EU Institutions and better meet users experience for applicants and beneficiaries, by constantly improving the digital management system, expanding and providing new features and functions and exploiting new approaches as these mature, including Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, social networks, etc.
SYNERGIES: New opportunities to leverage R&I funding and maximize impact
Speakers : Anna Panagopoulou, Andreja Kutnar, Magda De Carli, Nicola De Michelis, Stavroula Poulou, Karl Soukup, Monica Barni
Relevant DGs (R&I, REGIO, COMP) presented strategic approaches, current provisions and practical ways of implementing R&I in synergy with Horizon, including the launch of a new network consisting of Member States' research authorities and R&I Managing Authorities of Structural Funds (RIMA network).
[Workshop] Lump sum projects – A solution for simplification – Experience from H2020 pilots
Speakers : Anna Panagopoulou, Andres Martinez, Nicola Viebig, Raimund Bröchler, Vincent Declerfayt
Despite all simplification, funding based on reimbursement of incurred costs stays complex. The Commission was testing new initiatives with high potential for simplifications, notably via selected pilot calls where, since 2018, funding is based on lump sums rather than actual costs. This session enhanced knowledge sharing and communication on the first findings on the lump sum pilot.
Pathways from RESEARCH TO THE MARKET
Speakers : Karina Angelieva, Marian Piecha, Anna Panagopoulou, Dirk Beckers, Jana Valkova, Michael Schaller
What happens to successful research results when there is no follow-up funding? This session shed light on ongoing examples of R&I uptake through sequential synergies between Horizon 2020 and other EU programmes.
CRISIS UPON CRISIS: The cumulative effect of crisis on European resilience
Speakers : Martin Lodge, Signe Ratso, Joelle Grogan, Christian Lahusen, Brigid Laffan, Jan Wouters, Ides Nicaise, Sergio Salvatore
The session helped to understand how to enforce European society’s capacity for coping with the crisis by reinforcing European resilience. The proposed suggestions could guide decisions and actions of policymakers so as to take into account the different contexts, cultures, visions, problems and needs of a Europe in and out of crisis.
Hub 7 : International Cooperation
R&I GEOPOLITICAL OUTREACH through association
Speakers : Sanja Damjanovic, Mikheil Chkhenkeli, Eric Meslin, Daniel Dufour, Mustafa Varank
This session focused on the importance of association to H2020 across research communities and key stakeholders and forward-looking perspectives for the new association policy under Horizon Europe, while highlighting the importance of association in facing key global challenges (e.g. AI, green technologies, health, smart mobility).
SCIENCE AND CLIMATE DIPLOMACY with associated countries in the Mediterranean region
Speakers : Hasan Mandal, Hagit Schwimmer, Zohra Lila Chabaane, Ruta Zarnauskaite
Looking at climate-driven R&I cooperation opportunities in the Mediterranean region, this session investigated the international and geopolitical dimension of the European Green Deal, and the security dimension of climate change in the region.
How to shape the future of EU-CHINA RELATIONS in R&I cooperation?
Speakers : Jean-Eric Paquet, Janka Oertel, Charlotte Roule, Yutao Sun, Gu Xingfa
R&I are key to the socio-economic development, but have also effects on security, democratic values and ethics. To keep our globalised world in balance, science powers such as China and the EU needed to agree on a level playing field to conduct research, foster innovation and use the new technologies, joining forces to solve global challenges.
GLOBAL CHALLENGES NEED GLOBAL RESPONSE: starting from Covid-19
Speakers : Sethuraman Panchanathan, Maria Cristina Russo, Michael Makanga, Stefania Giannini
Starting with the global response to Covid-19, this panel analysed how cooperation with partner countries through multilateral platforms and international organisations were key in facing global challenges such as resilience to health threats, climate change, and the digital transition.
HORIZON AND MOONSHOT around the same orbit (Tokyo)
Speakers : Koichi Akaishi, Paulo Ferrão, Jean-François Soussana, Amanda Eichel, Iris Wieczorek, Michinari Hamaguchi, Kazuhiro Chiba, Jean-Eric Paquet
This session explored how Horizon Europe and Moonshot offered new opportunities to strengthen synergies and enhance cooperation between the EU and Japanese R&I ecosystems, in order to face common challenges such as pandemics, climate change, soils, digital transition and ageing societies.
Towards an innovation agenda for the WESTERN BALKANS
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Sanja Damjanovic, Atanas Kochov, Jovan Despotovski, Viktor Nedovic, Martin Kern, Florensa Haxhi
The Western Balkans are a strategic priority for the EU. In preparation towards EU membership, R&I and Horizon Europe Association trigger changes contributing to wider reforms. The Western Balkans Agenda and its actions aim to set out a new positive and forward-looking vision for the region.
Hub 8 : European Innovation Council
[Workshop] Voices from the future: EIC Pathfinder projects stories, people, visions
Speakers : Antonella Bongiovanni, Edvard Moser, Maria Goreti Ferreira Sales, Paolo Bergese, Seppo Vainio, Chiari Marcella, Marina Cretich, Marta Calderaro, Erich Prem
The session showcased EIC Pathfinder projects results in biotech, health and medicine. A keynote speech from the neuroscientist Nobel Laureate Professor Edvard I. Moser (GRIDMAP FET project) was followed by a discussion on the topic of extracellular vesicles by Antonella Bongiovanni, Maria Goreti Ferreira Sales, Paolo Bergese, Sepio Vainio, Marcella Chiari, Marina Cretich from the cluster of Pathfinder projects Ves4us, evFOUNDRY, INDEX, MARVEL, BOW, GLADIATOR, MindGap. The session included videos on more Pathfinder projects. This session is a contribution to the Future Tech Week 2020
[Workshop] EIC as a tool in times of crisis (panel discussion with COVID beneficiaries/Hackthon/Matchathon)
Speakers : Michael Ionita, Elena Poughia, Nuno Arantes-Oliveira, Eléonore Venin, Yrja Oftedahl, Corinne Versini, Irene Duyn, Liesa Siedentopp
A panel discussion showcasing the activities of the EIC bringing together the innovation community to fight and counter the Covid-19 crisis, including success stories from the EUvsVirus Hackathon / Matchathon. The panel discussed from a community perspective this new way of working and collaborating and discussed the state of play of the 120 selected projects, their ongoing partnerships and how things are progressing. The session also presented the EIC Covid 19 Platform.
[Workshop] More than money: EIC Business Acceleration Services under Horizon Europe
Speakers : Diego Pavia, Kinga Stanislawska, Giacomo Mattino
The EIC support goes far beyond funding and it aims at accelerating EIC innovations and growth of top deep tech companies. Therefore, this session had the objective to present the role and impact of EIC Business Acceleration Services. Business Acceleration Services aim at accelerating EIC innovations and growth of EIC supported companies. In particular, in this context it was crucial to show how the BAS are providing complementary support to the financial support of the Accelerator to help companies to scale up in the most optimised manner.
Building the new European Innovation Council: Putting Europe at the forefront of Deep Tech and Breakthrough Innovation
Speakers : Ana Maiques, Mark Ferguson, Mali Baum, Clivia Sotomayor Torres, Osnat Michaeli
Amidst a turbulent pandemic era, the need to support deeptech research and innovatie startups and SMEs is more important than ever for Europe to emerge stronger from the crisis. The Recovery Plan for Europe is destined to heal some of the 'wounds' left by the pandemic outbreak. During this session panelists and participants discussed how the European Innovation Council and its support for breakthrough and impactful innovations should differentiate Europe from other regions and make it a leader for next generation technologies and companies based on sustainability, digitalisation and deep tech.
From world class SCIENCE to world beating COMPANIES (joint with European Research Council)
Speakers : Kurt Mehlhorn, Daria Mochly-Rosen, Elsa Papadopoulou, Tobias Kippenberg, Filippo Bosco, Jean-Eric Paquet, Mark Ferguson
Europe is on the right track in the creation of excellence in science and innovation, however there is work to do in transforming world-class science into world-beating companies. This session discussed how the European Innovation Council (EIC) can address the gap between research and deeptech-driven innovation at a pan-European level.
[Workshop] The new Pathfinder: Science-towards-technology breakthroughs
Speakers : Jean David Malo, Cristina Silva Pereira, Dermot Diamond, Joanna Roberts, Paolo Dario
This session aimed at underlining the importance of the European innovation ecosystems and creating value across Europe through EIC/EIT collaboration. The importance of synergies across various actors and ecosystems were discussed, in view of the future Innovation Ecosystems Work Programme within the fully-fledged EIC in Horizon Europe.
[Workshop] Voices from the future: Pathfinder projects stories, people, visions (1)
Speakers : Marta Calderaro, Johannes Heitz, Emmanuel Stratakis, Iordanis Arzimanoglou, Sarah Kiehne
The session reported Pathfinder beneficiaries experiences and success stories on how to support project results in the path from research to market. The session included videos on more Pathfinder projects. This session was a contribution to the Future Tech Week 2020.
EUROPEAN INSTITUTE OF INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY AND EUROPEAN INNOVATION COUNCIL: Walking the Talk
Speakers : Kurt Höller, Catherine Schreiber, Gioia Ghezzi, Marja Makarow, Sirli Sipp Kulli, Salvatore Amico-Roxas
The session aimed at discussing opportunities for concrete synergies between EIT and EIC, by leveraging on the work of the joint EIC-EIT working group, including key elements of the future strategic framework for cooperation.
Towards the EIC FORUM : Optimizing how the EIC, national innovation agencies and partners work together in times of crisis
Speakers : Heidi Kakko, Dietmar Harhoff, Jean David Malo, Mark Ferguson, Gioia Ghezzi
An important element of the Innovation Ecosystems Work Programme under Horizon Europe is the European Innovation Council (EIC) Forum of Member States and Associated countries’ public authorities and bodies in charge of innovation policies and programmes. The Forum promoted coordination and dialogue on the development of the EU's innovation ecosystem and connected the existing innovation ecosystems with the EIC. This session was the launch of the EIC Forum, which was followed by the first annual EIC Forum plenary meeting, where panellists discussed the new priorities of the Commission, such as emerging challenges for the society resulting from the post-COVID-19 crisis, and the role of the innovation ecosystem in supporting economic recovery.
[Workshop] Breakthrough solutions to COVID-19 by EIC / InnovFin-funded companies
Speakers : Felicitas Riedl, Odile Duvaux, Tuomas Tenkanen, José Castillo, Vilma Radvilaite, Pierre Kemula
Since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the EC acted decisively to reorient the funding available in order to deal with the increased needs corresponding to the crisis. Thanks to the precious cooperation with the EIB under the Infectious Diseases Finance Facility (IDFF) and increased budget targeting this challenge, Europe is able to provide financing to European innovators developing solutions against COVID-19. The aim of this session was to demonstrate Innovative European companies, which develop solutions against Covid-19 in the areas of prophylactics, diagnostics and therapeutics. The session also showcased a couple of innovations being developed and funded by EIC Accelerator call targeting Covid-19.
[Workshop] Voices from the future: Pathfinder projects stories, people, visions (2)
Speakers : Jerzy Langer, Anxo Sanchez, Paul Lukowicz, Stefano Battiston, Emanuela Merelli
The opening Keynote speech by Prof. Jerzy Langer, EIC Pilot Advisory Board member, explained the evolution of the FET programme into the EIC Pathfinder and its role in supporting innovation. Following, the cluster of Pathfinder projects in the area Global System Science, with the participation of Angel Sanchez (IBSEN), Paul Lukowicz (CIMPLEX), Stefano Battiston (DOLFINS) and Emanuela Merelli (TOPDREAM) showed the experience to study Global challenges. The session included videos on more Pathfinder projects. This session is a contribution to the Future Tech Week 2020.
EIC supporting women revolutionising Tech
Speakers : Simone Brummelhuis, Mali Baum, Kinga Stanislawska, Shiva Dustdar, Keith Sequeira, Bindi Karia
One of the Commission’s priorities is to create gender equality as a critical component of economic growth. This session discussed initiatives aimed at increasing participation of women in the European Innovation Council, such as positive actions for women CEOs, gender parity in the juries, and the EU prize for Women Innovators. The session also brainstormed on new ways to promote gender balance in research, innovation and entrepreneurship to raise awareness and show-case women researchers and entrepreneurs as role models for the next generation.
[Workshop] New age for finance: incorporating sustainability into InvestEU and private funds
Speakers : Giorgio Chiarion Casoni, Stéphane Ouaki, Guido Moret, Tomasz Kozlowski, Benedicte Kariger, Ian Cochran, Aldo Romani
The need to attain climate and sustainable development goals requires the alignment of investors and fund managers with those objectives. The session explored methods and products being developed for this purpose, notably in the context of InvestEU – the EU's proposed flagship investment programme to boost the European economy – and how the investment community is adapting to the sustainability challenge. Innovative companies found the session useful for the alignment of their activities with the sustainability criteria being incorporated into public and private funds.
[Workshop] How to reach the stars? EIC support to start-ups and SMEs in widening countries
Speakers : Sille Pettai, Grzegorz Ambroziewicz, Raycho Raychev, Magda De Carli, Kinga Stanislawska
To fill the innovation gap among Member States many initiatives have already been launched under Horizon 2020. However much more still has to be done under Horizon Europe and therefore a dedicated budget share of the Framework Programme has been ring-fenced by co-legislators for widening countries. In addition, the EIC contributes to this endeavour by supporting the emergence of unicorns also in widening countries and awarding Seals of Excellence to companies that deserve alternative financial support. The objective of the session was to show to a wide audience, public and private sectors including SMEs and Starts-ups from widening countries that it is possible for them to ‘reach the stars’. We showed inter alia EIC success stories, financing tools/channels from public (EU and national) and private sectors that facilitate companies’ growth/scale up.
[Workshop] Showcasing of Green Deal innovators
Speakers : Emma Nehrenheim, Eline Stiphout, Nuno Quental, José Pinheiro, Pål Bergan, Yun Luo, José Maria Pinilla
The proposal for a European Green Deal put forward by the European Commission aims to make Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent by investing in research and innovation. We need act urgently to support the next breakthrough technologies in green deal innovations in order to attain the climate and the sustainable development goals. The objective of this session was to showcase great Green deal innovation supported by different EU financial instruments and initiatives: InnovFin Energy Demonstration projects, European Innovation Council, and European Institute of Technology InnoEnergy.
[Workshop] Removing the barriers for women innovators
Speakers : Sandra Van Vlierberghe, Valeria Nicolosi, Cristina Fonseca, Judit Cubedo, Anita Krohn Traaseth, Magdalena Jander, Luisa Prista
Since its inception, the EIC has strived for supporting women-led companies, helping women innovators in their journey and in turn inspiring other women to take their ideas to the market. This session helped the audience understand the main barriers faced by women innovators and how they to encourage higher women participation in the ‘deep tech’ domain.
[Workshop] Voices from the future: Pathfinder projects stories, people, visions (3)
Speakers : Rachel Armstrong, Clivia Sotomayor Torres, Cecilia Laschi
The session focused on the contributions from female scientists involved in Pathfinder projects. Rachel Armstrong presented her project LIAR on Microbes & Urban Sustainability: "Living" Architecture? Description Clivia Sotomayor Torres (PHENOMEN) and Cecilia Laschi (OCTOPUS) shared their perspectives on the involvement of women in the Pathfinder projects, addressing areas capable to create new foundations of science-enabled innovations. The session included videos on more Pathfinder projects. This session was a contribution to the Future Tech Week 2020.
[Workshop] Co-creation of EIC support to innovative procurement
Speakers : Céline Saint Olive, Louis Potel, Myriam Martin, Isa-Maria Bergman, Elisa Frenz, Bertrand Wert, Francois Bizard, Angela Russo
The EIC is launching several initiatives in relation to innovation procurement to support EIC beneficiaries, and during this session we received views and advice from stakeholders on the following action. The intention was to support the co-creation process between EIC beneficiaries and European public procurers of innovation, in order to be able to help public European procurers to make their sourcing from a community of very innovative companies financially supported by the EIC thus de-risking the cost of innovation.
[Workshop] EIC Transition Paving the path to the Accelerator
Speakers : Ana Maiques, Antonio Carbone, Isabel Obieta, Timo Hallantie, Bo Svarrer Hansen, Pascale Augé
Transition activities under the EIC are aimed at turning promising results from basic research-funded projects into genuine technological or/and societal breakthroughs and disruptive innovations. Transition activities shall be, therefore, a critical bridge for connecting deeptech research with market opportunities, and ensure a coherent link between Pathfinder & Accelerator, supporting both market and technology developments. The purpose of the session was to introduce the preliminary findings of the EIC Pilot Transition to Innovation Activities as well as to discuss the vision for the future EIC Transition under Horizon Europe. The discussion was organized in the shape of a round table by involving the main stakeholders of these measures, whose target audience is primarily the beneficiaries of basic research projects. In addition, existing tools and methodologies (including those ones developed under the Access2EIC NCP Network) were discussed to support researchers in defining the market/business dimensions out of a technological research output.
[Workshop] Live investor pitching with EIC start-ups with breakthrough solutions for COVID
Speakers : Markus Holzer, Bernhard Kreymann, Remberto Martis, Wolfgang Künnecke, Gerry McCauley, Cliff Ansel, Julie Sufana, Jan Bernlöhr, Diana Rucinschi, Catherine Schreiber, Ricarda Finnern
EIC Accelerator joined forces with Wolves Summit to bring eight EIC-funded SMEs tackling COVID-19 pandemic to pitch their solutions in front of investors from nine different EU-countries, including representatives of Capricorn Partners, Hightech Grunderfonds, Industrifonden, Kurma Partners, Mustard Seed MAZE, Panakes Partners, Seroba Life Sciences, Sofinnova Partners and Ysios Capital.
[Workshop] Co-creation session on topdown topics in EIC Pathfinder
Speakers : Viorel Peca, Manuel Noya, Mariette DiChristina
An interactive co-creation session - with EIC Pathfinder stakeholders and the wider public - to gather views of the EIC Pathfinder stakeholders and wider constituency (first 100 people to join the session on a first-come-first-served basis) on a shortlist of research topics for the EIC Work Programme 2021.
Europe's new "SUPER FUND": the European Innovation Council Fund
Speakers : Mariya Gabriel, Christoph Kuhn, Hauser Hermann, Kerstin Bock, Kerstin Jorna, Jean David Malo
The EIC Fund filled the funding gap at the start-up stage where the EU venture capital market underperforms compared to the global venture capital market. This is the first time the European Commission made direct equity investments in companies. Its main purpose was not to maximise the return on investments, but to accompany the companies in their growth as patient capital investor. Overall, the EIC Fund aimed to stimulate the European venture capital industry by selection of pure excellence in supporting founders, whilst paying attention to gender balance, and high risk innovative projects with equally high social and economic impact. The EIC Fund did not aim to compete with the market, but to crowd-in other investors and to stimulate this currently underperforming market.
[Workshop] Future technologies: Medtech & devices: Community building of EIC programme managers
Speakers : Klaus Welte, Enrique Claverol-Tinture, Carl Van Himbeeck
The EIC Medtech Portfolio includes the world’s most advanced life-saving medical devices and instruments, to diagnose and treat. Neural prosthesis that replace damaged brain areas, portable PET brain-imaging systems for rapid in-situ diagnosis, compact proton therapy systems for oncological treatment, technologies to improve survival after cardiac arrest, virtual-reality in surgery for safer procedures, EEG-enabled personalised treatment of depression,… The sky is the limit at EIC. Enric Claverol-Tinture is reponsible for the Medtech portfolio at EIC. In this session he briefly presented the new portfolio-focused management approach and our funding strategy in the coming future for medtech. With active management EIC seeks to support projects all the way from idea inception to market deployment, and to do so with coherence across projects and with focus on the fastest possible route to delivering the technologies to the patient. (10 minutes) This was followed by flash presentations of leading researchers in our portfolio presenting their devices (20’). We showed a sea of opportunities for patients, clinicians, investors and industrial partners. A panel including three industrial and financial stakeholders discussed the future in medtech and more specifically what they were looking for in projects to consider them investable (30’).
[Workshop] Innovation Radar pitching competition
The Innovation Radar (IR) is a European Commission initiative to identify high potential innovations and innovators in EU-funded research and innovation projects. This year the Prize took place virtually on 24 September in the context of the European Commission’s Research and Innovation Days event. With the help of Dealflow.eu, 10 organisations were shortlisted per category and, from these, 4 were selected from each category. Finalists then had the opportunity at the event to present their EU-funded innovation in a 3 minute pitch and outline the plans to get it to, or closer to, the market. The pitch was delivered to an experienced jury who are active in the European investment ecosystem. The event was powered by Dealflow.eu, under the official leadership of the European Commission’s Innovation Radar team of. Dealflow.eu is a consortium comprising of Deloitte Digital Ventures, H.I. Capital, and Dealroom.co (more info: www.dealflow.eu).
[Workshop] Future technologies - Biomedicine & Biotechnology Community building of PM with key stakeholders
Speakers : Iordanis Arzimanoglou, Anton Ussi, Jo Bury, Halina Novak, Jeremy Laurent
The increasing importance of innovative biomedical and biotechnology SMEs in the Bioscience industry ecosystem to address unmet biomedical and economic challenges. The top 10 from 300 screened, H2020-funded R&I biotech projects share unique novel approaches to products or processes in the key enabling biotechnology (independent study by senior experts). Current global bio-trends include topics such as emerging viruses monitoring, genome editing: challenges in drug development, or cell therapy/regenerative medicine. How EIC will evaluate the commercialization potential of its health and biotechnology portfolio (breakthrough projects, startups and scaling up SMEs)? Can the same criteria apply to other EIC thematic portfolios? Do the National and EU-Regional bioinnovation ecosystems, bioclusters and bioinitiatives need EIC? What competition should be expected for EIC in its mission to become the leading innovation organization in Europe with global impact: Focus on biomedicine and biotechnology? What is the uniqueness of EIC? Are the PMs of varied background a key component of its uniqueness? To what extent the PMs objectives align with that of the entire EIC?
[Workshop] Corporate engagement in EIC: Planet Tech Demo Day
Speakers : Manuel Mendigutia, Oana Popescu, Cesar Velilla, Bram Keteleer, Fabien Donze, Simon Bosschieter, Lucresse Van Wonterghem, Matthew Van Niekerk, Yousef Yousef, Jim Snabe
During this session, 4 of the Proof of Concepts developed in the framework of the EIC Planet.tech initiative jointly presented by the EIC startups and large corporations involved. The exchange focused on the EU Green Deal and best practices for collaboration across value chains, de-risking major investment for scaling.
[Workshop] DRAGON'S DEN 'ROASTING' WITH EIC STARTUPS AND JURY AND INNOVATOR RADAR AWARD CEREMONY
Speakers : Martin Theyer, Angele Giuliano, Céline Saint Olive, Jose A. Martinez, Unai Zorriqueta, Jean-François Perrin, Martin Bothe, Jasper Hemmes
Three pitches for investment were given to a panel of four different investors. During humorous Q&A, the panel challenged the pitches and competed to cooperate. This taught the audience how investors perceive and judge applicants.
[Workshop] Towards and EIC Market Place
Speakers : Michela Magas, Muriel Attané, Fredrik Hörstedt
In collaboration with IPR helpdesk and JRC TTO
[Workshop] ATTRACT: an initiative to create a deeptech ecosystem
Speakers : Sini Simpura, Michael Krisch, Marja Makarow, Fabienne Gautier, Jonathan Wareham, Cinzia Da Via
Many breakthrough technologies with strong societal impact stem from fundamental research. ATTRACT is a pioneering project building a deep tech innovation ecosystem around an existing scientific community, involving research infrastructures, researchers and industry, including SMEs. ATTRACT also integrates the humanities to help scientists and companies turn the deep tech used for exploring the frontiers of science into societally useful technologies in detection and imaging. The session explored how fundamental science can lead to breakthrough innovation, what makes this particular ecosystem work and what factors can be exported to stimulate other deep tech ecosystems.
Hub 9 : European Institute of Innovation & Technology
Innovating for the GREEN DEAL
Speakers : Antoaneta Angelova-Krasteva, Elena Bou, Kirsten Dunlop, Andy Zynga, Bernd Schäfer
Discussion on KICs’ current and future activities aiming at: • addressing the consequences of the pandemic, with solutions having an impact in the everyday life of citizens; • boosting innovation in support of the goals of the Green Deal and to capture new business opportunities for start-ups, SMEs and big companies.
[Workshop] Skills for resilient researchers
Speakers : Viviane Hoffmann, Rob Smeets, Andrea Ferrari, Frank Gielen, Fernanda Bajanca
Capacity to recover from the Covid-19 outbreak requires building a critical mass of talents. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions together with EIT initiatives and other European programmes foster the skills of tomorrow.
An European approach to ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Speakers : Willem Jonker, Klaus Beetz, Jan-Philipp Beck, Gareth Macnaughton, Federico Menna
The session focused on the contribution of EIT and its KICs to boost AI innovation, through the integration of knowledge triangle activities (in particular, entrepreneurial education, business creation and acceleration and support to the development of innovative solutions) and the KICs’ ecosystem approach.
EUROPEAN INSTITUTE OF INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY REGIONAL INNOVATION SCHEME post-2020
Speakers : Karina Angelieva, Maria da Graça Carvalho, Gonçalo Amorim, Martin Kern, Phoebe Koundouri, Brian Maguire, Karel Haegeman
The session informed participants about the key achievements and challenges of the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) until now and focus on the new elements introduced with the Commission’s proposal for the EIT Strategic Innovation Agenda 2021-2027. EIT RIS, is EIT’s action for widening participation to its activities and the main EIT Community tool to strengthen the innovation capacity of Member States and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries with moderate or modest innovation capacity (according to the European Innovation Scoreboard). The session was part of the EIT Stakeholder Forum 2020, which aims to provide a platform for EIT stakeholders to express their views and contribute thereby to an impactful implementation of the EIT’s future work programme.
[Workshop] Career development and entrepreneurship
Speakers : Katharina F. Heil, Mostafa Moonir Shawrav, Jeroen Van Lent, Claire Morel
How can graduates and PhD holders develop their career path in the current changing times? The alumni communities (Marie Curie Alumni Association, EIT Alumni network, Erasmus+ Student and Alumni Alliance) drew on different perspectives (students, researchers, graduates) and presented their experience in this area. This session particularly focused on the current challenges for career development in EU priority areas such as digitalisation and green transition. Discussion addressed the contributions of the alumni associations to the implementation of these priorities.
Supporting the innovation capacity of HIGHER EDUCATION in Europe
Speakers : Véronique Perdereau, Carlos Rich, Márton Herczeg, Janusz Janczukowicz, Patrick Prendergast, Brian Maguire
The session informed the participants and discussed about the key elements of the new capacity building action for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), as introduced with the Commission’s proposal for the EIT SIA 2021-2027, which builds on the work and results achieved up to date in the area of knowledge triangle by the EIT and KICs.
Hub 10 : European Research Council
[Workshop] In conversation with ERCEA Management
This informal networking session was an opportunity to interact with representatives of the Scientific Department of the European Research Council Executive Agency. Conversation topics included the ERC’s grant schemes, the application and evaluation process, as well as preparations for the Horizon Europe programme.
Frontier research to fight COVID-19
Speakers : Vincenzo Cerullo, Balpreet Singh Ahluwalia, Meike Bartels, Magdalena Skipper, Sunetra Gupta
The ERC session ‘COVID-19: frontier research in the spotlight’ aimed to showcase examples demonstrating the added value of bottom-up frontier research in bringing innovative (and sometimes unexpected) solutions to the Covid-19 crisis, at short or medium-term. In this session, four prominent scientists, funded by the ERC, joined forces to shed light on how we can build a more resilient post-pandemic world.
#EUFUNDED: Challenges and best practices of public engagement with research
Speakers : Kostas Nikolopoulos, Tony Lockett, Anna Davies, Kate Morris, Erik Van Sebille
The European Research Council brought together panellists to highlight the importance of public engagement for EU funded researchers and exchange best practices in this domain. The laureates of the first ERC Public Engagement with Research Award presented their winning activity.
European Research Council of the future: Creating GIANT LEAPS FOR MANKIND!
Speakers : Søren Barlebo Rasmussen, Frede Blaabjerg, Dag Rune Olsen, Maria Blasco, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Karin Roelofs
This session featured the “Friends of the European Research Council (ERC)” handing over of an open letter and 16 000+ signatures to EU representatives, a live discussion on the importance of fundamental research and the launching of the Association for ERC grantees. Organised by the ‘Friends of the ERC’ and Association for ERC grantees.
[Workshop] In conversation with ERC’s Scientific Council
This informal networking session was an opportunity to interact with the President of the European Research Council, Prof Jean-Pierre Bourguignon and one of the Vice-Presidents of the ERC’s Scientific Council, Prof Fabio Zwirner. Conversation topics included the role of frontier research in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic as well as future challenges, preparations for the Horizon Europe programme and the current state of negotiations on the EU’s future budget.