Maire Geoghegan-QuinnEuropean Commisisoner for Research and Innovation Maire Geoghegan-Quinn has called on Malta to exploit the fact that projects funded by Horizon 2020 can also benefit from Structural Funds, something that was not possible with the FP7 programme in force between 2007 and 2013.
Malta is soon to present its National Research and Innovation Strategy 2020 to the European Commission.
“You need to access the big pot of money that there is in Structural Funds for research and innovation. That can help you to build the infrastructure, develop the hardware, buy equipment, establish a lab, and so on,” she said.
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn was one of the voices that fought hard to retain funding for research and innovation, as she believes it is very effective in getting people to collaborate and work together.
“I argued very strongly not to demolish it. Even those countries that are particularly low in investment in research and innovation as a proportion of GDP actually made progress – perhaps it was only a little progress but it was still progress.
“And ministers for research always say to me that the fact that the three per cent target is there strengthens their hand when they go and talk to their ministers of finance looking for money,” she told The Sunday Times of Malta.
She stressed that the EU ranked behind its competitors in research and innovation, particularly the US, but that there were other countries catching up.
“Look at what is happening in the east, in Singapore, India, South Korea. Even China is making vast investments in research and innovation.
“We need member states and governments – including the government of Malta – to substantially increase their investment in research and innovation. If you look at the countries which best survived the economic crisis in Europe, they are the same ones that have invested strongly in research and innovation.”
One of the problems often raised by local researchers is that Horizon 2020, like its predecessor, is a competitive programme. But she said it was not necessarily the case that countries that most needed to invest in research were the least likely to win funding.
“It is not about dividing out the money equally between the 28 member states. The criterion for getting funding for research and innovation is to have excellent proposals. People have to work together to develop that excellence.
“We have a full programme for widening participation for countries like Bulgaria and others, which have not been successful in bids so far, to help them to build their excellence and compete with the other countries.
“We have, for example, teaming and twinning where they can identify the centres that have potential to become excellent. They can bring in outside professors to help to build up teams. It doesn’t actually matter to a researcher, I have discovered, where they are based as long as they have the facilities to do their research.
“We also have the European Research Area and a bonus scheme for salaries for researchers who are working 100 per cent on European projects,” she said.
Horizon 2020 is divided into three pillars. The first is excellence in science, backed by a European Research Council and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions. The second is industrial leadership, which she said was an important step.
“In Europe, we do excellent research but we do not do well when translating it into products and services people want to buy,” she said.
The third pillar is society challenges, like food and energy security, and climate change, which no single scientific discipline can solve or no member state alone can solve, she added.
Ms Geoghegan-Quinn, a former Irish minister and member of the European Court of Auditors, stressed that there was a considerable difference between Horizon 2020 and FP7.
“First of all, it is a much simpler programme and much easier to access. You get your money four months earlier than you would have before. It is all electronic now. There is no more form filling or time sheets or any of those irritants for researchers and scientists.
“The architecture is much more coherent from top to bottom and bottom to top. The participant portal is very clear and guides you right through all the elements involved. I think people will very much appreciate it.”
Parliamentary Secretary for Research and Innovation Stefan Buontempo said at the launch on Friday that Maltese organisations succeeded in tapping into €17.4 million in funds under the FP7 with a total of 146 projects and 173 local participants.
Twenty of these projects were coordinated by a Maltese institution, with the University of Malta being the most active participant with 43 projects, followed by the Malta Council for Science and Technology with 42 projects.
A total of 863 scholarships were awarded, 82 of them to applicants who wished to pursue studies at doctoral level.
Fact file
• With a budget of almost €80 billion over seven years, Horizon 2020 is one of the few areas of the EU’s new budget that sees a major increase in resources.
• Horizon 2020’s budget is 30 per cent higher in real terms than the 7th Framework Programme for Research.
• The reimbursement of project costs will be much simpler with a single reimbursement rate for most projects – which means less paperwork and fewer audits.
• Projects will be up and running in eight months – four months earlier than under the current system. Negotiations took a long time but the programme was finalised just before the end of the Irish presidency.
• The World Economic Forum’s survey on the EU’s competitiveness in 2012 ranked Sweden on top with a score of 5.77 and Bulgaria at the bottom with 3.76. The EU average was 4.94, while Malta’s was 4.39.
• The BRIC countries scored 3.95, with the US index at 4.95 and Japan at 5.04.
• Malta should leverage both Horizon 2020 and Structural Funds – Quinn
Watch the full interview with Commissioner Quinn on www.timesofmalta.com.