“Recommendations for a strong health industry in Europe”
Central recommendation: ▪
1.2.
The European Research Area, the EU framework programmes and the transfer of knowledge between academic and industrial health research should be strengthened in order to permit breakthrough innovations in the health industry. Expanding the EU funding programmes “Horizon Europe”, “Innovative Medicines Initiative” und “Digital Europe Programme”
So far Europe has not made sufficient use of its innovative potential and should step up its pace in order to maintain its position as an important global hub for investment in life-science, research and development and digitization. For this reason an upgrading of the EU support programmes in the areas of research and development, health and digitization is absolutely essential. As a central instrument of European research and innovation promotion, the new EU framework programme “Horizon Europe” (2021 – 2027) is intended to make an important contribution to closing this innovation gap. If this objective is to be achieved, the programme should become more industry-friendly and support innovations with market-oriented innovation promotion instruments such as public-private partnerships. The political decisionmakers should press ahead with central key technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) by making sufficiently protected data available and at the same time permitting unbureaucratic access to the programmes. A high level of participation by industry and early integration is decisive for success. It is only industry that converts basic research and good ideas into genuine innovations. In order to continue to be globally competitive in key technologies and strategic value creation chains, the EU should support a greater readiness for risktaking and increase its investment in research and innovation. The 100 billion euros proposed by the European Commission for Horizon Europe (2021 – 2027) are not sufficient. At least 120 billion euros should be allocated into order to close the innovation gap.5 This financial incentive provided by the public purse is the key to attracting private funding for investment in research and innovation. One of the key elements of “Horizon 2020” in relation to health research is the “Innovative Medicines Initiative” (IMI). IMI is the worldwide biggest public-private partnership (PPP) in the health sector with a total budget (IMI 1 and 2) of 5 billion euros, funded in equal shares by the European Union and the European pharmaceutical industry (represented by EFPIA6). The goal of IMI is to enable open cooperation between the public and private sectors in
BusinessEurope Position paper “Research and Innovation in the New European Cycle” (September 2019): https://www.businesseurope.eu/sites/buseur/files/media/position_papers/iaco/2019-09-09_position_paper_research_and_innovation_in_the_new_eu_political_cycle.pdf 6 EFPIA: European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations 5
www.bdi.eu
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