THE EUROPEAN – SECURITY AND DEFENCE UNION
In the Spotlight
+++ Research and Innovation +++
Science, education and innovation carry intrinsic, unnegotiable European beliefs
Values that make us unique and strong in a multi-lateral geopolitical world by Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Research, Innovation, Culture, Education and Youth, European Commission, Brussels
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he provoked war in Ukraine is the most recent signal of the need to defend our democratic values and freedoms. An urgent need that Europe addresses with strong resolve and unity. We prepared swift responses to tackle the humanitarian urgencies and strong sanctions against the aggressors, targeting their financial and economic activities. Regarding the research, innovation and education programmes (Horizon Europe, Erasmus+ and Euratom), we also took a clear position, suspending our scientific cooperation with Russia and supporting Ukrainian researchers, and foreign scientists and academics working in Ukraine.
Europe needs to tackle its dependencies The war in Ukraine obliges us to accelerate the processes to transform our societies and our economies towards more resilience, more sustainability, and more strategic autonomy. We need to tackle our dependencies, especially from unreliable partners, on critical sectors and infrastructures such as our energy or food supply, cybersecurity, the next generation of secure communications, artificial intelligence and new materials. Let me stress the need to include educational infrastructures in the list of socio-economic critical infrastructures, as it became evident during the pandemic and now with the surge of numbers of children displaced from the war. Such a proactive path requires a holistic approach of anticipation, deterrence, resilience and leadership. I believe it must necessarily include research, innovation and education. Let me highlight three dimensions that require our attention to reinforce our European strategic autonomy: 1) research and innovation through key industrial R&I partnerships; 2) highly skilled competences in deep tech, and 3) deepening our R&I global approach at programme-level to foster cooperation with trusted allies. Research and innovation Starting with research and innovation, Europe needs to strengthen the synergies between programmes in order to develop the security and defence union, increasing the capacity
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of EU Member States, authorities and institutions to align investments. Horizon Europe provides important instruments through its partnerships in critical areas for Europe’s strategic autonomy such as clean hydrogen or advanced manufacturing capacity, including on advanced chips and new materials. These partnerships, involving Member States and industry, are very good instruments to foster joint R&I agendas with a critical mass of investments and stakeholder support to maximise the impact of their investments.
war in Ukraine obliges us to “The accelerate the processes to
transform our societies and our economies towards more resilience, more sustainability, and more strategic autonomy.”
Partnerships are mainly funded through the second pillar of Horizon Europe with an envelope in the order of €25bn. Being a mechanism with a double purpose – align and add – Europe must foster synergies with actions that reinforce our autonomy and our competitiveness. We can account for an additional €50bn co-invested by Member States and industry. Additional resources can be raised to strengthen our ability to align regional, national and European investments to be at the forefront of innovation across the EU territory. For example, with the recently proposed Chips Act, we plan to allocate more than €1bn of Horizon Europe funding to strengthen Europe’s semiconductor and new materials ecosystem, from research to production and a resilient supply chain. The partnerships on clean hydrogen – also worth €1bn of Horizon Europe – is positioned to accelerate the adoption of alternative energy sources and energy storage technology and infrastructures, developing at the same time a European
