REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Annual Report on Research and Technological Development Activities of the European Union in 2013
Date: 2014-09-04
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, EU programme, applied research, financing method, innovation, research and development, scientific cooperation













EUR-Lex - 52014DC0549 - EN











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52014DC0549

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Annual Report on Research and Technological Development Activities of the European Union in 2013 /* COM/2014/0549 final */









REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL
Annual
Report on Research and Technological Development Activities of the European
Union in 2013
1.           Background
to the Annual Report on RTD Activities
The
Annual Report on research and technological development activities of the
European Union (EU) is prepared pursuant to Article 190 of the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The purpose of this report is to
provide an overview of key measures undertaken in the reporting year. 
2.           The
broader political context in 2013 
In
2013, Member States started and continued significant reforms to return to
sustainable economic growth and welfare. The European Commission undertook
important measures to enhance and complement these efforts, including
strengthening the involvement of social partners in the European Semester
framework. As a result, a gradual recovery of Europe's economy has set in since
the beginning of 2013, becoming more noticible in the second quarter of 2013.
While the recovery is expected to continue, the European Union needs to
continue to work together in order to strengthen its ability to compete
globally. 
Despite
the continuing difficult economic climate in the past year, the EU made
progress towards the Europe 2020 targets by initiating positive structural
trends, such as raising education levels, building a more sustainable energy
mix, reducing the carbon intensity of the economy and making progress towards
the R&I investment target of 3%. 
In
order to strengthen Europe's position as a global competitor and put its
economy back on track to growth, investment in Research and Innovation
(R&I) is crucial.  Therefore, R&I continued to be at the core the EU's
agenda for smart jobs and growth and at the centre of the EU investments.
Horizon
2020, launched at the end of 2013, is the financial instrument implementing Europe's 2020 flagship initiative 'Innovation
Union'. The new framework programme was designed to address and
tackle societal challenges and promote economic prosperity by funding excellent
science, technology and innovation.  
3.           horizon 2020 
Following
the set of trilateral negotiations between the EU institutions, the Horizon
2020 package was adopted with clear majorities in both the European Parliament
on 21 November 2013 and the Council of the European Union on 3 December 2013. 
With an EU budget
(2014-2020) of €79.2 billion in current prices,
the new EU framework programme[1]
represents a break from the past –with major simplification which allows wider
participation, the integration of research and innovation, and a challenge
based approach.  Horizon 2020 will help to bridge the gap between research and
market, while at the same time further strengthen excellence, thus providing
powerful opportunities to convert new knowledge and technological breakthroughs
into high level innovative services and products.
The
new programme is particularly well placed to put together public and private
sources of finance, with the aim of boosting Europe’s innovative companies:
·        
More
private investment has been secured to address major societal challenges while
boosting Europe's industrial competitiveness. On 10 July 2013, the Commission
made proposals on a number of public-private and public-public partnership
initiatives which are part of the Innovation Investment Package[2].
These partnerships will be one of the key elements of Horizon 2020, as they
will allow for large-scale and long term innovation activities by
joining forces
between the private sector, the EU and Member States with a budget of over €20
billion.
 


 Measures to overcome the
     insufficient availability of finance in Europe, a major obstacle to
     getting innovations to the market, have been put in place.  The
     Risk-Sharing Finance Facility, jointly set up by the European Commission
     with the European Investment Bank Group, has ensured that for €1 billion of EU budget money the EIB has
     mobilised €12 billion in loans and over €30 billion in final R&I
     investment.  This has led to additional resources of up to €40 billion
     since 2007 for research and innovation activities which would have
     otherwise be left unfunded.  
 In line with the mainstreaming
     approach of Horizon 2020, measures are foreseen to set up a robust support
     system, in particular, benefiting SME and facilitating their access to
     funding opportunites across the whole programme. The new dedicated SME
     instrument supports the most innovative ideas of European SMEs showing a
     strong ambition to develop, grow and internationalise.  Within the target
     of 20% of the overall funding of the societal challenges and the specific
     objective 'Leadership in enabling and industrial Technologies' 5% have
     been allocated for the continuously open call in 2014/2015 and 7% for the
     overall period of the programme.

Alongside
the political decision-making, the Commission made the necessary preparations
for implementing the new programme.
(a)          The Horizon 2014-15 Work Programmes
On 10 December 2013 the
European Commission adopted the first work programme under Horizon 2020. The
Commission indicated funding priorities over two years, providing researchers
and businesses with more certainty than ever before on the direction of EU
research and innovation opportunities. Calls for proposals were opened on 11
December 2013. Among the highlights:

 Special attention is given to Small
     and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), in particular through a new,
     dedicated instrument. SMEs will be able to apply for EUR 253 million in
     innovation grants under this new, exclusive scheme, in 2014 alone. 
 As provided for in the 2014/2015
     calls, a total budget of nearly EUR 20 million is earmarked for individual
     grants from the European Research Council (nearly EUR 14 million) and
     Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (nearly EUR 7 million) for research
     training and mobility. 
 To help address the innovation
     divide, Widening measures include calls for ‘European Research Area
     Chairs’ (EUR 34 million), Teaming actions (EUR 12 million) in 2014 and
     Twinning (EUR 74 million) in 2015.  

(b)
       Simplifying access
A
new version of the Research and Innovation Participant Portal with the
deployment of an improved IT capacity, a more contemporary technology, a
reorganised and simplified navigation, as well as further developed layouts and
contents was launched on 4 December 2013. The new online guidance for Horizon
2020 participants – Horizon 2020 Online Manual – was developed in collaboration
to facilitate understanding of the processes of the programme. The manual is
easily accessible from any section of the Participant Portal[3],
leading users directly to the relevant guidance section.
4.           The
Innovation Union
The Innovation Union was placed at the
heart of the Europe 2020 Strategy with the aim of fostering Europe's capacity
to innovate. The Innovation Union is succeeding in building momentum around
innovation, by increasing investments in R&I, mobilising stakeholders and
mainstreaming innovation in key European, national and regional policies. 
As
a comprehensive strategy, the Innovation Union addresses a wide range of
elements that impact Europe's innovation ecosystem and is succeeding in
changing it. Excellent progress has been made in delivering on each of the
Innovation Union priorities: 

 Strengthening the knowledge base
     and reducing fragmentation: The knowledge base in Europe is being strengthened, notably through: the launch of Horizon 2020; focusing of
     European Regional Development Funds on Smart Specialisation Strategies;
     and support for skills development, and progress towards the European
     Research Area (ERA) – see below under section 5; 
 Getting ideas to market:
     Great efforts have been made in delivering the tools for a more
     innovation-friendly business environment in Europe, such as the unitary
     patent and the revised public procurement directives which offer better
     opportunities for innovating. Instruments to ease access finance are in
     place, notably those under Horizon 2020, and are about to start
     delivering, including reinforced debt and equity facilities and the
     venture capital passport. 

While public
intervention has typically been used, in the past, to stimulate the supply of
research and new knowledge, it is increasingly being used to stimulate the
demand for innovation with instruments such as pre-commercial public
procurement, innovation-friendly regulation, standards-setting, etc. For
example, procurement of innovation was facilitated, a methodology for the
screening of regulation in terms of its impact on innovation was developed and
tested, the eco-innovation action plan was launched, and standard-setting was
modernised and accelerated.

 Maximising social and territorial
     cohesion: The Innovation Union has also tackled the
     challenge of territorial and social cohesion. For instance, Smart
     specialisation strategies have been established as an ex-ante
     conditionality for investment priorities under research, technological
     development and innovation with the aim to promote a better innovation
     performance across European regions and Member States, without
     compromising on excellence. The increased emphasis on social and public
     sector innovation is ensuring a broader uptake and societal impact of
     innovation, as well as a mind-set change with regards to who should be
     concerned by innovation and who can be an actor of change in the EU. In
     particular, momentum is building around public sector innovation, where
     actions undertaken went beyond the initial expectations of the Innovation
     Union.
 The European Innovation
     Partnerships (EIPs) provide a new approach to
     EU research and innovation. Five EIPs have been launched in key areas of
     active and healthy ageing, water, agriculture, raw materials and smart
     cities. They are now all in the implementation stage, having identified
     priorities, engaging a wide range of partners across the demand and supply
     sides of innovation, and starting to deliver first results, e.g. mapping
     of good practices, practical toolkits for replication, collections of
     evidenced impact and implementations of integrated services.

An expert group
has assessed progress and evaluated the overall performance of the EIPs. The
group has concluded that the EIP is the right approach to help enable
future European economic growth and welfare. Their
recommendations imply improvements that can be made to the current
EIPs and significant changes to the way that future EIPs are launched and run.

 Leveraging our policies externally:
     The global dimension of innovation has equally been taken into account.
     Several initiatives have been developed to increase Europe’s
     attractiveness as a research and innovation destination and partnerships
     between the EU and its Member States have been strengthened in the
     definition of priorities for cooperation with third countries, including
     the development of global research infrastructures.
 Making it happen:
     Progress in Europe and Member States' research and innovation performance
     have been monitored in the framework of the integrated economic
     coordination (‘European Semester’), through the Innovation Union
     Scoreboard[4],
     the Innovation Union Competitiveness Report and through the new innovation
     output indicator. The new indicator uses four indicators from the outputs
     and firm activities types in the the Innovation Union Scoreboard, grouped
     into three components (patents, employment in knowledge-intensive
     activities, and competitiveness of knowledge-intensive goods and
     services), and a new measure of employment in fast-growing, innovative
     sectors' firms.

The monitoring
will be continued and improved through the Policy Support Facility under
Horizon 2020. Exchange of best practices and mutual learning have equally been
facilitated by the EU. 
Over the past
years, a fundamental shift in the right direction has happened, reducing the
innovation performance gap with our main competitors. The latest
Innovation Union Scoreboard shows that, since 2008, the EU has
managed to close almost half of its innovation performance gap with the US and
Japan. Nevertheless, the gap with South Korea is widening and China is quickly catching up. Therefore, the EU, its Member States and other stakeholders
need to continue working together to improve the European innovation ecosystem.
5.           European
Research Area (ERA)
Further
to the adoption of the Commission Communication on a Reinforced European
Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth (ERA Communication) on
17 July 2012 and the setting-up of the ERA Monitoring Mechanism (EMM) to
monitor progress of the implementation of ERA, the Commission continued to
consolidate the EMM throughout 2013. The Commission worked in close cooperation
with the newly created European Research Area Committee (ERAC) ad hoc working
group on monitoring, with a view to refining the ERA indicators and related
data collection methods, notably the ERA Survey. 
The
work on the EMM resulted in the adoption of the first ERA Progress Report in
September 2013, which provides a snapshot of the situation in Member States and some Associated Countries and lays down the baseline for a full assessment of
progress in the following year[5].
The 2013 ERA Progress Report was discussed during the Competitiveness Council
in September 2013, where the need to accelerate structural reforms of national
systems and to strengthen the monitoring of ERA progress has been reiterated. The
dissemination of the 2013 ERA Progress report provided an assessment of the
progress made in target areas such as open and fair recruitment of researchers
or better circulation of scientific knowledge. 
Moreover,
the 2014 Annual Growth Survey[6]
adopted in 2013 emphasised the need for Member States to adopt reforms in line
with the ERA Communication and has allowed for the ERA Monitoring Mechanism and
Progress Report to become fully embedded into the European Semester policy
cycle. 
The
implementation of the ERA Communication at research stakeholders' level has
been supported through the widening and reinforcing of the stakeholders'
platform. A sixth organisation[7]
joined the platform in July 2013. A Joint Declaration was signed by the six
stakeholders’ organisations[8]
and the Commission on 13 December 2013. All organisations reaffirmed their
combined commitment to achieving the goals of ERA. At the end of 2013, all
stakeholders reported on the progress achieved in their commitments towards
achieving ERA and provided their input into the 2013 ERA Progress Report. 
The
ERA Manifesto – a newly launched European Parliament initiative gathering
Members of the European Parliament and research stakeholders - also provided a
new impetus to the implementation of the ERA actions at the level of national
authorities and research stakeholders.
6.           International Cooperation
2013 saw the first full
year for the implementation of the Communication ‘Enhancing and focusing EU
international cooperation in research and innovation: a strategic approach’[9].
In line with the Innovation Union, the strategy seeks to strengthen the Union’s
excellence and attractiveness in research and innovation and in its economic
and industrial competitiveness; tackle global societal challenges; and support
the Union’s external policies. To this end integration of the strategy into the
Horizon 2020 legislative package was ensured during the
inter-institutional debate. The package includes a policy for association to
Horizon 2020 focusing on Enlargement, EFTA and Neighbourhood countries.
Negotiations began with a number of countries in 2013, with initialling of the
agreement with Israel in December.
The Strategic Forum for
International S&T Cooperation reviewed and streamlined its Rules of
Procedures to improve coordination of and with the Member States' international
cooperation activities. The Eastern Partnership Panel on research and innovation
agreed to work jointly towards the elaboration of a Joint Strategy for
cooperation. At the November 2013 meeting of the EU-Africa
High-Level Policy Dialogue on Science, Technology and Innovation, the
parties agreed to start working towards a long-term jointly funded and co-owned
research and innovation partnership with a first focus on food and nutrition
security and sustainable agriculture.
The high-level meeting
'The Atlantic: A Shared Resource' was organized in Galway in May, leading to
the signature of the Galway Declaration by the EU, Canada and the USA and the launch of the Transatlantic Ocean Research Alliance.
Three Destination
Europe conferences were organised in the USA together with the Member States and the Associated Countries to raise awareness of the excellence of European
research and the career and funding opportunities available in Europe for researchers worldwide.
In line with the goal
of promoting a level playing field for cooperation and addressing framework
conditions inhibiting cooperation, the first high-level meeting of the
Innovation Cooperation Dialogue with China took place in November 2013 in Beijing. There was a shared interest in promoting predictable, transparent and effective
framework conditions related to innovation and an Expert Task Force on
Innovation Cooperation was created to identify and promote successful practices
in the EU and China. 
The EU-Russia Year of
Science was successfully launched in November. This high-level event provided
both sides to reiterate their commitment to EU-Russian cooperation in Science
and Technology.
7.           Joint
Research Centre (JRC)
The JRC is the European Commission's in-house science service and
the only Commission service in charge of direct research. The JRC's mission is
to provide EU policies with independent, evidence-based scientific and
technical support throughout the whole policy cycle. Working in close
cooperation with policy Directorates-General, the JRC addresses key societal
challenges while stimulating innovation through developing new methods, tools
and standards, and sharing its know-how with the Member States, the scientific
community and international partners. 
In 2013 the JRC responded to a growing number of requests for
scientific support to policy from the Commission policy services related to the
EU’s priorities, especially in the framework of the EU’s blueprint for smart
growth - Europe 2020. The JRC provided direct scientific support to thematic
policy areas such as: financial stability and the Economic and Monetary Union;
single market, growth, jobs and innovation; low-carbon economy, resource
efficiency environment and climate change; energy and transport; agriculture
and food security; health and consumer protection; information society and
digital agenda; public health and safety, nuclear safety and security.
In order to manage efficiently its increasing responsibilities,
the JRC has taken a more multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial approach by
elaborating the first JRC Work Programme (2014-2015) within Horizon 2020, which
is based on a newly designed rolling plan, and a project structure of finer
granularity. Stronger innovation, combined with new international partnerships,
help to address pressing global issues such as climate change, health, food
security and poverty. The JRC’s strengthened relations and networks with EU and
international partners are crucial for global scientific excellence.
Underpinning policies with solid scientific evidence and sound
analysis requires state-of-the- art infrastructure for science activities,
quality data and appropriate analytical tools. As an example, a new
eco-friendly and energy efficient science building was opened at the JRC’s
Ispra site (Italy).
8.           Implementing
The Seventh Framework Programme
In 2012, the Commission
launched the biggest ever set of calls for proposals under the Seventh
Framework Programme (FP7). To ease the transition to Horizon 2020, there was a
strong focus on actions integrating a breadth of activities, with the potential
for creating a high impact. Approximately 45 calls for proposals were concluded
in 2013 for a total indicative budget of EUR 4.9 billion. A total of around 20
000 eligible proposals were received, of which nearly 3 000 were retained for
funding, resulting in a success rate of nearly 15 % on a proposal basis.
A total of 67 630
applicants were involved in all eligible proposals, for total project costs of
over EUR 34 billion and a total requested EU contribution of nearly EUR 28
billion. A total of 12 702 applicants were involved in the retained proposals,
for total project costs of nearly EUR 6 billion and a total requested EU
contribution of over EUR 4 billion. The overall success rate was 18.78 % in
terms of applicants and 15.96 % in terms of EU contribution requested.
9.           Outlook
for 2014
The Commission
remains committed to delivering on the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy.
It is currently working on the implementation of the Communication to the
European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee
and the Committee of the Regions on assessing research and innovation as
sources of future growth entitled "Research
and innovation as sources of renewed growth".[10]
For the development of
the Horizon 2020 work programme 2016-2017, a wider consultation and discussion with
Member States will be among the Commission priorities. It will also take into
account new intelligence on scientific, technological, economic, market, and
social trends and foresight, as well as current and emerging policy needs to
build on its competitive advantages and seize new opportunities.
In 2014, the Commission
will also continue to deliver on the Innovation Union actions. It will present
the '2010-2014 State of the Innovation Union' report, showing results and key
findings. However, in the light of the on-going crisis, Europe needs to
continue its efforts to make the Innovation Union a reality. 
The 2013 ERA Progress
Report was discussed during the Competitiveness Council in September 2013, and
will pave the way for the adoption of Council Conclusions on ERA in 2014. The
Commission will organise a conference following the publication of the 2014
Progress Report to be issued in September. A full assessment of progress in
implementing ERA will be made through the 2014 ERA Survey, which aims at identifying
implementation actions required to complete a single market for researchers,
knowledge and technology. The 2014 ERA Survey will be crucial for identifying
areas where progress has been made and where further efforts are required.
The Commission has
furthermore launched an EU-wide consultation of all stakeholders on the lessons
to be learned and on the main factors that should help it in shaping the next
stages of the EU's post-crisis growth strategy for
the 2015-2020 period. It will present concrete
proposals in early 2015.
[1]               http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/horizon-2020-brief-eu-framework-programme-research-innovation.
[2]               Adopted by the European Parliament on 15 April 2014
and the Council of the European Union on 6 May 2014.
[3]               http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/home.html.
[4]               http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/policy/innovation-scoreboard/index_en.htm
[5]               The 2013 ERA Progress Report was accompanied by the
Facts and Figures which showed the different levels of progress towards the
completion of ERA, reflecting national priorities. See: http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/era-progress-2013.htm

[6]               COM(2013)800 final.
[7]               The Conference of European Schools for Advanced
Engineering Education and Research (CESAER) joined the Stakeholder Platform on
17 July 2013 as the sixth stakeholder organisation and handed over a Unilateral
Statement to the Commission.
[8]               These are: European Association of Research and
Technological Organisations (EARTO), the European University Association (EUA),
the League of European Research Universities (LERU), NordForsk, Science Europe
and CESAER.
[9]               COM(2012)497
[10]             COM(2014)339.