Work in Parliament Building critical mass for innovation

Other Activities | 28-03-2012

Maria da Graça Carvalho participated in the Associated European Research and Technology Organizations - an FP7 ERA-NET (AERTOs) final Conference Building Critical Mass for Innovation that took place in the Solvay library in Brussels.

As rapporteur for the specific programme implementing Horizon 2020, Ms Carvalho spoke about her views on the Horizon 2020 Proposals.

ÆRTOs- ERA-NET projects aim to create synergies among national R&D programmes. They target programme owners (ministries or funding agencies). AERTOs may appear a little different in that the key actors are Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs). However, the RTOs participating in AERTOs operate under a public mandate and hence are in essence public programmes.

The AERTOs participants are seven major research organizations (VTT, TNO, SINTEF, Fraunhofer, CEA, SP, Tecnalia) from six Member States (FI, NL, DE, FR, SE, ES) and one Associated State (NO). EARTO, the European Association of Research and Technology Organizations, plays a role as subcontractor, ensuring that the participating RTOs and their programme owners take account of RTO interests and structures in other Member States while actively promoting the results of the project to the wider RTO community.

Objectives

ÆRTOs' rationale is to foster greater RTO cooperation within Europe. The aim is to achieve important efficiency gains by exploiting synergies and avoiding duplication of effort, thereby further strengthening European innovation potential.

ÆRTOs is the beginning of a new, integrated pan-European RTO infrastructure aimed at developing strategies and governance mechanisms to implement significant own joint programs. The expected outcome of ÆRTOs are funding mechanisms enabling researchers from the project partners to apply internally for funds and to perform joint research activities - a unique procedure in Europe. Final Conference Building Critical Mass for Innovation

Results

  • Successful implementation of a first pilot programme
  • The pilot programme started in 2010 with a budget of 2.7m € self-financed by ÆRTOs partners. In total, six projects have been launched in the areas of energy-efficient buildings and off-shore wind energy. One project is already completed. The other five successfully passed their midterm review in February 2011.
  • Joint horizontal actions
  • Joint task force on human resources has been set up. The group is drafting a training programme for senior research managers.
  • Identification of strategic topics for further cooperation
  • Five strategic topics (bio-based economies, value from waste, resilient cities, service science, and scarcity of critical materials) have been identified for further cooperation.
  • Preparation of a green paper
  • Strategic research agendas have been developed in the form of a green paper, finalized in January 2011. It identifies critical themes for the EU and Member States, in relation to societal grand challenges, joint programming initiative and other Horizon 2020 objectives, and where ÆRTOs member organisations expect to make a significant contribution.
  • Next steps

The future task of ÆRTOs lies in consolidating governance structures for a sustainable development of ÆRTOs cooperation. A special instrument to support "Strategic Research Alliances" on European level would strengthen the role of RTOs in tackling the grand challenges and supporting joint programming

Programme of the conference:

  • 12.30 - 13.00 Welcome: Role of RTOs in the Innovation System - Jan Mengelers, President of TNO, President of EARTO
  • 13.00 - 13.30 Public-Public partnerships - the road ahead - Joerg Niehoff, Policy Officer, European Commission
  • 13:30 - 14.00 Overview of AERTOs - Jens Neugebauer, FhG - AERTOs Project Coordinator, Director European Policy, Fraunhofer
  • 14:00 - 14.30 Joint Programming in AERTOs: Pilot Programme on Value from Waste - Mats Carlin, Research Director, SINTEF
  • 15.00 - 15.30 Strategic Cooperation in AERTOs: Development of Strategic Research Agendas - Freek Heidekamp, Senior Advisor, TNO
  • 15.30 - 16.00 A Member State's View on Joint Programming and Research- Performing Organisations - Dan Andree, Special Advisor Swedish Ministry of Education and Research / Vinnova
  • 16.00 - 16.30 A View on the Horizon 2020 Proposals - Maria da Graça Carvalho, Member of the European Parliament
  • 16.30 - 17.00 The Future of RTO cooperation - Jens Neugebauer, Director European Policy, Fraunhofer, AERTOs Project Coordinator

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