1.2. Expanding the EU funding progammes “Horizon Europe”, Innovative Medicines Initiative” and “Digital Europe Programme

Central recommendation:

▪ 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.

1.2. 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

5 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

research. The aim is to press ahead with the development of and the access of patients to innovative medicaments, therapies and products, especially in areas where medical need has so far not been met.

While IMI has been supporting cooperation between pharmaceutical enterprises for more than 10 years, we recommend that in future the integration of partners from other industries should also be advanced. Along the lines of the IMI structure and the ECSEL partnership7 for the microelectronics sector, a PPP Health should reflect the entire range of the health industry. Solutions for the health-related challenges with which our society is confronted do not simply lie within one single branch of industry. The future is patient-centred and patient-integrated with an important role for digital technologies.

The rapid development of key technologies puts the European Union under tremendous competitive pressure. This emerges particularly clearly in the AI area. Simply by consistently focusing on AI, Europe could boost its economic performance by the year 2030 by 2.7 trillion euros or by 19 percentage points. 8 And AI is only one of many digital future technologies which enterprises in Europe and around the world will transform into successful business models in the coming years and make use of to solve current social and economic challenges. The economic potential of a deeper digital single market is estimated to lie around up to 415 billion euros annually. 9

So far, however, this is not reflected in public funding measures. In the next few years the Federal government aims to invest 3 billion euros in the framework of its AI strategy. The commitments envisaged by the EU are on a similar scale. But that will not be enough to catch up with the world leaders. By way of comparison: over the next eleven years China will support AUI research with 150 billion dollars and a research-friendly research policy.

The European Commission is currently planning the “Digital Europe Programme” which provides for direct investment to the tune of a total of 9.2 billion euros for the application of innovative digital technologies in five key areas: supercomputing (2.7 bn. euros), artificial intelligence (2.5 bn. euros), cybersecurity (2 bn. euros), advanced digital capabilities (700 million euros) and the guarantee of a broad use of these digital technologies in industry and society in accordance with the European sustainability goals and values (1.3 bn. euros). We recommend major participation by industry in order to make a success of the programme.

It is important that European policy does not allow itself to be bounced into regulatory uniform solutions (“one size fits all”). For example, on account of their graver consequences for the consumer in the case of incorrect decisions, medical AI applications must be treated differently than, for example, the AIbased optimization of production processes. Europe needs a regulatory

7 ECSEL Joint Undertaking: Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership 8 BDI (2019): https://bdi.eu/themenfelder/europa/which-europe/ 9 ibid.