ERAC meets to discuss key strategic topics in Brussels

On 13 and 14 February 2025, ERAC met for the first time this year, and with a new Member States co-Chair. Feite Hoffmann from the Netherlands took over from Barbara Weitgruber, who had co-chaired ERAC for the last three years.

The meeting started with a strategic debate on "From analysis to action", about how to move forward with the ambition to close the innovation gap and to create a “Fifth Freedom” as set out in the reports by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta. Although most delegations' messages were not presented in a revolutionary spirit, ERAC members asked for clear steps ahead in the way European countries should join forces for a more effective innovation system in Europe. Several delegates stressed the need for stronger coordination of policies and programmes in Europe, including for stronger investment in R&I. The ERA Act was mentioned as a potentially important step for stronger and more binding coordination. The Austrian delegation proposed a “Fifth Freedom Track”, consisting of the following elements: a limited number of strategic RTI areas is selected, money from the Multiannual Financial Framework (FP10/Competitiveness Fund) is secured, and supplementary programmes are established on the basis of Article 184 TFEU, where member States can join in a la carte and bring in their national funding schemes to maximise funding and coordination. In general a more focussed/selective approach with stronger links to deployment was supported. Several delegations asked for a strong next Framework Programme, including keeping collaborative research as a corner stone, and continuing to build on well-working and established instruments. Under the impression of disruptive forces acting in the US, it was proposed to promote Europe as the place for research and researchers from all over the world.

The second day started with a discussion on “Talents, Skills, Research Careers: How to move forward”. The discussion was meant to look out for next steps on the basis of the Council Recommendation on a European Framework to attract and retain researchers. The most frequently raised issues were: (1) Career development, where many delegations reported on reforms regarding reducing precarity and promoting tenure track models. (2) Research assessment, where many Member States are also reforming their systems. In this context, knowledge valorisation and inter-sectoral mobility appear to be of high relevance. (3) The still persisting hurdles for researchers' transnational mobility. “RESAVER” was mentioned several times as a promising tool that could be used more. More ambitious ways of facilitating mobility were also raised, and the ERA Act was mentioned as a potential tool to get this off the ground. In addition, several delegations mentioned academic freedom as a potential topic for the ERA Act.

The third highly strategic topic on the agenda was the ambition to deliver an ERAC Opinion on Research and Technology Infrastructures by May 2025, in order to provide input to the drafting of a common strategy on research and technology infrastructures, scheduled for autumn 2025. An ERAC drafting team consisting of colleagues from France, Spain, Italy and Czechia will work on the text and will involve all ERAC delegations in several loops. Delegations supported this procedure as well as the main focus of the Opinion that will revolve around two questions: (1) How to strengthen the ecosystem of cutting-edge facilities and services of Research Infrastuctures (RIs) and Technology Infrastructures (TIs) to optimise their role for scientific, technological and innovation excellence and competitiveness, including issues like accessibility, skills development, critical technologies and digitalisation? And (2) How to ensure a strategic governance that improves the prioritisation and pooling of investments in RIs and TIs?