EU research funding boosts scientific excellence, competitiveness: report

Investment in research and innovation from the European Union (EU) budget between 2007 and 2013 has greatly improved scientific excellence in Europe and strengthened its competitiveness by improving industry's capacity to innovate, according to the evaluation of the EU's 7th Framework Program (FP7) published by the European Commission on Monday.

The ex-post evaluation of FP7, the EU research funding program for 2007-2013, was conducted by an independent group of high-level experts that analyzed the economic and societal impact of the program.

On this basis, the Commission has also drawn recommendations to be integrated into Horizon 2020, the current EU research and innovation funding program.

"We are now using the lessons learned to further improve Horizon 2020, the new EU research and innovation funding program, and make it simpler, more effective and more focused on finding innovative solutions to benefit our society and economy," said Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation.

The ex-post evaluation of the 7th Framework Program shows that the 55 billion euros (59.6 billion U.S. dollars) invested over seven years into EU's research and innovation proved highly attractive to private sector participants, including a record number of SMEs (small- and medium- sized enterprises), which helped strengthen competitiveness of European industries.

The program also set up five Joint Technology Initiatives in key areas, including innovative medicine, hydrogen and fuel cells.

With a record number of participants and projects funded, the program also strongly contributed to strengthening scientific excellence.

So far, FP7 projects have generated over 170,000 publications, with an open access rate of 54 percent for all scientific peer reviewed publications created during the lifetime of FP7.

In addition, the ex-post evaluation also found that the FP7 has had a significant impact on creating growth and jobs in Europe. Experts have forecast that FP7 investment is on track to trigger economic growth of approximately 20 billion euros (21.7 billion U.S. dollars) per year over 25 years, or 500 billion euros (541.9 billion U.S. dollars) in total, through direct and indirect economic effects.

It is also estimated that the program is creating 130,000 research jobs per year over a period of ten years and 160,000 additional jobs per year over a period of 25 years.

In addition to its achievements, the report has also looked at the issues to be improved in order to maximize the impact of EU investment in research and innovation in the future.

While most of these areas, including improving administrative procedures and funding flexibility, better integration of different parts of the program and synergies with other research and innovation funding schemes, have already been addressed in the set-up of Horizon 2020, further recommendations would be taken on board in subsequent reviews, said the European Commission. Endit