The leading universities of science and technology united within CESAER, in collaboration with the European University Association, today publish a joint statement expressing concern about the unbalanced share of funding for basic and applied research projects within the Horizon Europe clusters.
This follows an analysis of calls, carried out under the Horizon Europe clusters in the first two years of the programme, which identified a substantial decrease in the proportion of calls with Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) up to level 4 - closer to basic research - as compared to the corresponding calls under the previous Horizon 2020 programme.
Especially in deep-tech and emerging key technologies, success depends on our ability to link different types - and readiness levels - of science & technology across the full knowledge chain.
We therefore call on the European Commission to rebalance the proportion of calls with lower, medium and higher TRLs for collaborative call topics within the Horizon Europe clusters.
This joint statement is presented as an input to the public consultation on the past, present and future of the European research and innovation framework programmes 2014-2027. See also the separate article also published today, with our main inputs to the consultation.
For more information, please contact our Advisor for Innovation & Sustainability Louise Drogoul or our Advisor for Research Edward Ricketts.