The last meetings of ITRE before the summer recess were held on 13 and 14 July. The key topics of these meetings were the Gas and Hydrogen Directive and the European Chips Act.
On 14 July, a public hearing was held on the European Chips Act, and its potential. After the opening remarks by ITRE chair Cristian-Silviu Busoi, numerous expert presentations were held by policy and industry representatives, followed by a Q&A with ITRE members. The European Chips Act aims to ensure the technological leadership of Europe. It was created in response to the shortage of rare materials necessary to create semiconductors, and it also considers to sustainability of building these crucial components.
The next ITRE meeting will take place on 1 September.
As part of the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), MEPs voted to increase the share of renewables in energy consumption on 13 July. According to the revised directive, by 2030, the European Union’s final energy consumption should be at least 45% renewable.
In addition to raising this target, MEPs raised the number of cross-border projects, and scrutinised the transport sector – in which, the use of renewables can lead to a 16% decrease in greenhouse gases.
Alongside the focus on renewables, the importance of energy saving targets was also emphasized by the MEPs – in a separate vote, regarding the revision of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), the target for the collective reduction of energy consumption was increased to 40% by 2030, compared to 2007 projections.
These proposals, which are part of the RepowerEU package, couple with the other ambitious, legally binding goals within the EU’s overarching climate strategy outlined within the ‘Fit for 55’ package. The key aims of this package are reaching the 55% emissions reduction target by 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2050.
The final vote on the RED and EED will be held during the plenaries, between 12-15 September.
The United Kingdom revealed its science and research policy plans in case the UK’s association into the Horizon Europe programme remains unsuccessful. According to this contingency plan, the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) as well as national academies will receive increased funding. In addition, a “Horizon Europe” guarantee is also included, which would provide UK government funding for research projects that succeeded in Horizon.
Overall, this “plan b” promises transition measures for UK researchers, and on the long run, aims to build on an alternative UK research infrastructure, involving existing grants, and increased funding. Numerous organisations are calling for the urgent release of more details. Nevertheless, aiming for ascension into the Horizon programme is still preferred by many – this, however, is at risk due to the UK and the EU’s souring post-Brexit relations. The adverse effects of this are already felt by researchers, whose grants were withdrawn, or had to change institutions to carry on research.
Similar tendencies can be observed in Switzerland, which was ejected from the Horizon programme in 2021. The country’s R&D is reportedly facing difficulties as the national level programmes were unable to provide the same amount of financial coverage as Horizon was.
Albeit initiatives such as Stick to Science – of which EuChemS is a supporter of – call for the ascension of UK and the re-ascension of Switzerland into Horizon, many fear that these countries will be unable to find common ground necessary for this with the Union.
Preliminary data on Horizon Europe programme applications was made available recently. This data shows an increase in the success rate of applicants, from 12% to 15.8%. As of mid-August, there are 25320 eligible proposals, out of which the aforementioned almost 16% is retained. The figures on the dashboard are to be updated on a monthly basis.
While the improvement is certainly beneficial for researchers, these results are still considered not completely satisfying by many, as numerous well evaluated proposals were said to remain unfunded.
Further concerns were raised in light of the European Council’s proposal, which includes significant €663 million cut of Horizon Europe’s 2023 budget allocated by the commission. The proposal outlines a €122 million cut of the European Research Council (ERC), as well as €33 million less for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) and €27 million less for research infrastructures. Christian Ehler, head of Industry, Technology and Research committee (ITRE) and Horizon Europe co-rapporteur heavily protested the proposed cut, alongside numerous MEPs of the committee.
In addition to budgetary concerns from the parliament, research university associations also called for improved transparency of how the funding is allocated within the framework of the programme, as well as more clear-cut descriptions of the priorities. In an open letter, while appreciating the EU focus on research and innovation, the Eurotech Alliance Universities pointed out that Horizon funds often accumulate around commission priorities. The alliance urged the Commission to “openly inform stakeholders on how much of the Horizon Europe funds have been allocated and granted to non-Horizon Europe priorities” to increase transparency.
The results of the European Universities Initiative’s 2022 call were published by the European Commission. As of 2022, the initiative involves 44 European University alliances, consisting of 340 higher education institutions of 31 countries. Four new alliances were formed since 2021. Under the 2022 Erasmus+ call, alliances are able to accept associated partners from Bologna Process countries, including Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, despite the latter two not being fully associated member.
University alliances are higher education institutions that cooperate on education, research and innovation for the benefit of students, educators and society. The European Universities initiative is structured around two topics: on one hand, it offers to provide sustainable funding for already existing successful alliances, on the other, the call supports the creation of new European Universities across Europe. Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel stated that such alliances can bring closer the European vision for higher education.
The goal of European Universities is to substantially increase education quality by partnering with around 1300 stakeholders from various backgrounds. It was proposed by the Commission at the Gothenburg Social Summit in 2017, as part of an overall vision for the creation of a European Education Area by 2025. This is part of the European strategy for universities ambition.
In partnership with Unesco, the IYSSBD 2022 organised its opening ceremony online. During the full-day event, audiences could hear a wide range of experts form UNESCO as well as from academia and external organisations discussing the importance of basic sciences -including, but not limited to mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology – in the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The International Year, alongside being endorsed by the UN, is also supported by 90 international bodies, including international science academies, learned societies, scientific networks, research and education centres, and is co-sponsored by 36 countries.
The initiative aims to enhance awareness and education in the field of basic sciences, which contribute to improving general quality of life and sustainability. The organisers stress that the importance of these sciences became increasingly prominent in face of the recent global pandemic – which motivates the promotion of their cruciality and the role they play in reaching SDGs. Over the course of the year, events and activities will be organised worldwide to further this cause by numerous organisations – including EuChemS, which will dedicate some of its undertakings to mark this occasion.
Science ministers of the world’s advanced economies, the G7 countries – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union – met on 12-14 June in Frankfurt. Amongst numerous significant topics, international scientific cooperation was also discussed in detail.
On a global stage, increasingly characterised by hostilities, as well as ideological and political incompatibilities, scientific cooperation may be in a tight spot. According to Science/Business, the leading countries’ growing focus on safeguarding their technologies may harm scientific progress.
High level officials recognised this issue, and while acknowledging the need for security, they confirmed their commitments to scientific openness. However, these pleas happened in the face of many complaints from researchers who perceive that geopolitical barriers are standing in the way of cooperation. To respond to these calls, G7 members founded a working group to develop a toolkit with the aim of advancing research freedom, scientific integrity and security among academics amongst the countries concerned.
On 17 June, at the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF), a Global Methane Pledge Energy Pathway was launched. The high-level policy event was attended by Head of States of 20 countries. Amongst the participants were President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, UN Secretary General António Guterres and United States President Joe Biden.
The European Union and the United States published a joint press release, in which they pledged to reduce anthropogenic methane emissions at least 30 percent by 2030 from 2020 levels, and commit to the Energy Pathway, which will enable the mitigation of methane emissions. The launch of a satellite-surveillance alert and response system by the UNEP International Methane Emissions Observatory was also announced.
Following the announcement of the pathway, in an online event, hosted by Rapporteur on the EU strategy to reduce methane emissions, MEP Maria Spyraki, stakeholders met to discuss methane reduction ambitions in context of the challenges the EU and the world faces. During this discussion, the invited speakers established that tackling methane emissions is an opportunity that must be taken to effectively limit global warming, tracking data is crucial to keep up mitigation actions, and the changed frameworks brought about by the war can be considered as opportunities. The closing remarks were delivered by MEP Spyraki – who also participated in the EuChemS workshop “The value is on circularity – Recycling-reusing-reinvesting on critical raw materials”-, summarising the urgency of regulating methane emissions.
The 2022 edition of the report has been largely influenced by the major global events of the recent years – the Coronavirus pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In face of such crises, a key message of the report is putting emphasis on Europe’s resilience and preparedness for unexpected challenges. To ensure such resilience, the report highlights certain key policy areas to focus on. It also shows that, while the EU holds onto its strong position in R&D, major trading partners are closing the gap, as their innovation performance is improving faster than the EU’s. This may have economic and political implications; hence the report calls for improvements of the EU business infrastructure.
On 12 July, a virtual launch event was held for the report, where Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General for Research & Innovation addressed the audience, followed by the introduction of the report’s key findings and a panel discussion of experts on research innovation and economy.
The European commission launched a pilot project for a potential future Joint European degree label within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme. Yann-Maël Bideau, Policy Officer at the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG-EAC) described the pilot, and the call for proposals open for institutions interested in it in detail, at the “Link EDU-RES 2nd Multiplier Event” organised by Young European Research Universities (Yerun) in Brussels.
The project, in its early stages, is looking for proposals from institutions willing to test deeper instruments of transnational cooperation in higher education, and thus, explore the policy and educational landscape, and determine the future of a joint European degree label. Such a label would recognise the experiences students could gather from international education, and provide a way to institutionalise the values inherent to this.
Institutions can apply to be part of this pilot until 6 October 2022. Erasmus+ allocated a total budget of 2.000.000 Euros for this “policy experimentation”, divided into two halves: 1.000.000 EUR for the Joint European Degree label pilot and 1.000.000 to explore institutionalised instruments and the feasibility for legal frameworks of cooperation.
On 1 July, the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union began, following the end of the French Presidency. The country is the second over the course of the 18 month-long “trio presidency”, following France and preceding Sweden.
In “trio presidencies”, member states work closely together to achieve long-term goals, sharing a common agenda. However, alongside the foci of the initial programme – Covid recovery, digital sovereignty and the ‘One Health EU approach’- new, urgent priorities were introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In light of the conflict, the Czech presidency has announced that it will focus on managing the refugee crisis caused by the invasion and assisting Ukraine’s post-war recovery. In addition, achieving energy security within the EU will be of paramount importance. This is to be done through reducing dependence on Russian energy by accumulating reserves, and decarbonisation. The priority list also emphasizes strengthening the defence of the continent, as well as keeping the economy resilient.
The findings of the Research Excellence Framework demonstrate that the United Kingdom’s chemical research is outstandingly high quality – 45% of the UK’s academic contributions are rated ‘internationally excellent’ while 49% of them can be considered ‘world-leading’ – based on evaluations of research output impact and research environment. The area of chemistry performed slightly better than the overall average where ‘internationally excellent’ and ‘world leading’ research was 43% and 41% respectively. Tom Welton, president of the Royal society of Chemistry welcomed these results.
The bright results of the research, carried out by academics and research users, however, were overshadowed by a new UK graduate visa scheme that does not bode well for academic cooperation between the UK and the European Union. The controversial scheme allows ‘high potential individuals’ – graduates from top ranked global universities – to move to the UK even if they lack a job offer. However, it relies on metrics that “offer no meaningful measures of teaching quality” – according to Declaration on Research Assessment chair Stephen Curry. As a consequence of this, there is an overrepresentation of United States universities in the scheme, while there are only three European universities present – LMU Munich, Paris Sciences et Lettres University, and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. In addition to minimising research traffic between Europe and UK, the new visa scheme is said to exclude the global south as well.
Scientific cooperation between European countries and Great Britain is patchy since the latter’s departure from the European Union. Amongst other issues such as the one above, one of the key challenges is dealing with the difficulties regarding the UK’s ascension into Horizon Europe – ‘Stick to Science’, an initiative that calls EU institutions to accelerate this process garnered traction in earlier this year.
Laurence Moreau is the new director of the European Research Council (ERC)’s executive agency. She holds a doctoral degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Nantes. Her previous experience involves working at the Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation, the Research Executive Agency, and the Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs. She also has 6 years of experience at the ERC, and since the retirement of previous director Waldemar Kütt in January of this year, she is the acting director of the Executive Agency.
The Executive Agency is the implementing arm of the ERC, which means it is responsible for organisational, financial, peer-review evaluation- and strategy-implementation related matters – while the institution itself is governed by an independent scientific council which outlines said strategy.
Alongside the director, the executive agency is also managed by a 6-member steering committee, which supervises the Executive Agency’s operation. Both the director and the steering committee is appointed by the Commission, the former for a 4-year period, while the latter for 2 years.
Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council, participated in a discussion about maintaining global scientific collaboration at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, where she made comments highlighting that international scientific cooperation must remain reciprocal.
In her comments, she indicated that countries which undermine this reciprocity and trust by sending large amounts of graduate students to other countries, while not give research and knowledge by similar means in return risk being cut off from global scientific cooperation.
The role of science as a geopolitical soft power tool became increasingly evident in the last few months, after numerous countries and institutions cut ties with Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. ERC president Leptin’s words echo the importance of science in global politics.
However, despite the strong comments, the ERC remains committed to international research cooperation, as Leptin’s participation in and contributions at last month’s “From a European to a Global Green Deal” conference, co-organised by the STOA panel and the STS forum, show. During this international conference, she encouraged colleagues around the globe to cooperate with the ERC while emphasizing the importance of fundamental research.
Eurostat’s report is generally favourable, as it states that in the last 5 years, progress was made towards most goals. However, it still shows that there is room for improvement and notes the influence of the energy usage reduction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the favourable indicators of the past two years. It also points out that progress is significant with SDGs that parallel key EU policy areas, such as the Green Deal.
The report by the committees DEVE and ENVI emphasises that, in order to meet the goals outlined in the Paris agreement, it is crucial to follow sustainable development goals as well. Therefore, it calls for a unified, high level EU strategy for the implementation of SDGs by 2030.
In addition to the SDGs, plastic pollution is also on the ENVI committee’s agenda. On 14 June, an exchange of views with Ms Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was held. The exchange centred around the ambition outlined at the fifth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5), aiming to complete a legally binding agreement for tackling plastic pollution by 2024.
However, the Commission also faces some criticism on the sustainability front. A recently released special report from the European Court of Auditors states that 20% of the €216 billion climate spending was ‘unduly recorded’.
The European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) held a structured dialogue with the Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel at its 13 June meeting. The meeting covered Horizon Europe’s history and achievements since its launch in 2021, with emphasis on the role of the Horizon programme as a tool to support Ukrainian scientists.
Commissioner Gabriel began her presentation by announcing Ukraine’s ratification as a member of the Horizon Europe programme, as well as Euratom, and explained other research-related support opportunities granted by the EU, such as ERA4Ukraine.
She continued by talking about the future of Horizon Europe. She confirmed an increased budget for the programme this year, mentioning that the additional funding will also support the efforts towards helping researchers in Ukraine. New programmes, such as one supporting women in technology start-ups, were also announced. She reported that expanding international partnerships beyond the borders of the EU is also amongst the future plans of the Horizon programme.
Lastly, she acknowledged the importance of academic freedom in the European Union and outlined setting up a European programme to evaluate academic freedom in the European Research Area. Following this presentation, she listened to the comments, and responded to the questions of the ITRE committee members.
The European Commission facilitated a lengthy consultation process, involving more than 300 stakeholders (out of which 20 research organisations were part of the core group debating the details), including ISE – Initiative for Science Europe, through which EuChemS also contributed. Following the consultation, the agreement was drafted by European University Association (EUA) and Science Europe representatives, as well as former chemistry researcher Karen Stroobants.
The key points of the research assessment reform draft, according to Science/Business, entail 4 commitments: the recognition of diversity of research careers; qualitative peer-evaluation based assessment; refraining from “inappropriate uses” of publication metrics as well as refraining from relying on international rankings of research organisations in research assessment. This is to result in a widened scope of assessment, involving more than a restrictive set of qualitative metrics.
The consensus came soon after German Research Foundation (DFG) expressed its disapproval towards the centralised nature of the proposed reforms in a position paper, emphasising that reforms should stem from the institutions instead. However, after the drafting team stated that these concerns were properly addressed, and research ministers stood behind the Commission’s adoption of this reform draft, it is likely that the reforms will be underway soon.
The European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) have published a statement on the relations of the intellectual property (IP) law and open science in April. The statement concludes that, while the IP law provides a framework in which open science can operate, the patent law is not up to the standards of open science, therefore ALLEA calls for its modernisation.
The report states that, in order to align with open science principles, greater clarity about non-commercial knowledge use and the introduction of “grace periods” of at least one year allowing open publication are needed. In addition, ALLEA states that public funding should not be substituted by patent income, and only used as a potentially useful supplement. Lastly, the statement criticises the use of patent activity as an evaluation method. It argues that using it as such may incentivise collecting non-performing patents, the prioritisation of which brings no benefits, and wastes resources.
On 28 April, applications for the European research Council (ERC) Advanced grants were closed. The ERC Scientific council allocated an approximate 555 million euros to these projects altogether, although this number may still be subject to change. This could fund 223 advanced grants, the selection of which has recently begun. Results are expected to be announced in April 2023. The total funding pool is lower than last year’s 624.6 million euros, which funded 253 researchers, as the ERC recently published when announcing the winners of the 2021 Advanced Grants.
The 2021 grantees are coming from 21 EU Member States and associated countries. It’s estimated that these grants will lead to the creation of 2300 new jobs in the field of research. Details and figures of the awarded 2021 grants can be found here.
ERC released preliminary data on this year’s applications, which showed that the total number of proposals were lower than 2021. The gender balance increased slightly: compared to last year, when 20,8% of the applications were made by women (although they received more than 25% of the total grants), in 2022 this number climbed to 23%. However, this still means that less than a quarter of the applications were made by women, which certainly leaves room for improvement. Regarding subjects, the number of applications for physical sciences and engineering was the highest by a significant margin. Social science and humanities took the second place, closely followed by life sciences.
Science and Technology in Society forum (STS forum) and the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) jointly organised the high-level conference “From a European to a Global Green Deal”. Introductory remarks were made by STOA Chair Christian Ehler and STS chairman Hiroshi Komiyama.
Amongst the numerous high-profile speakers of the first panel were Paula Abreu Marques, Deputy Director of DG Energy who outlined the European policy landscape and briefly mentioned energy policy proposals to be published soon, as well as European Research Council president Maria Leptin, who pointed out the importance of Fundamental research and Transnational contribution. She also encouraged colleagues across the globe to collaborate with ERC. The second panel further promoted reaching beyond the borders of Europe when establishing scientific partnerships to address global challenges. Moderated by Ismail Serageldin, Founding Director Emeritus of The Library of Alexandria, Egypt, this panel was consisting of speakers from Japan, Thailand and Europe.
The European Union’s strict stance on genetically engineered crops may loosen after a consultation opened on the 29 April. These developments were brought forward due to the increasing need for ensuring food security and keeping the agriculture business competitive in light of the long-term changes caused by global warming as well as the immediate effects of the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the food market.
Health and food safety commissioner Stella Kyriakides supports deregulation as she emphasises new genomic techniques (NGTs) potential to build a more resilient and sustainable agri-food system. Her statement is in line with the results demonstrated by the Commission’s recently released fact sheet.
The Greens/EFA group however retains its staunch anti-GMO stance, arguing that long-term risks are still unknown, and that deregulation may give GMO patent holders unfair market advantages. Renew Europe group supports “proportionate” regulation for NGTs, as they expressed in their position paper. This would also support the change of laws on genetically engineered crops which are currently one of the strictest in the world.
You can read the details and the background on the EU’s GMO policy here. You can contribute to the consultation as well, which you will also find in the Consultations & Roadmaps section of our Brussels News Updates.
29 April marks the 25th anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) – on this occasion, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) called all CWC members and signatories – including EuChemS – to reaffirm their commitment to make the world free of chemical weaponry. Major international and European institutions acknowledged the anniversary and emphasised the importance of the convention, including, but not limited to the European Council, the EEEA, and the United Nations. EuChemS also expressed its support of CWC. The extensive list of those who reiterated their support can be found here.
Since its entry into force in 1997, the CWC made significant strides towards chemical weapon disarmament: 193 states are participants, making 98% of the world population safe from chemical weapons. Under the aegis of the convention, 99% of chemical weapons stockpiles and 74 out of 97 declared production facilities were destroyed. 23 other sites were converted for peaceful purposes. The OPCW carried out 4939 inspections, and possesses 24 environmental, and 20 medical sites.
More info and news can be found on the official OPCW webpage.
9 May marks Europe Day – on the anniversary of signing the Schuman Declaration, European states celebrate the unity of the continent. The closing ceremony of the year-long Conference on the Future of Europe was held on this symbolic day.
The Conference on the Future of Europe gave an opportunity to citizens to actively take part in the democratic process, and engage with the European Union and its upcoming prospects. This discussion culminated in 49 proposals, each consisting of a key objective and numerous measures. The proposals covering a wide range of areas will be delivered as a report to the European Parliament.
Amongst the key themes, environmental and educational matters can be found. The set of proposals urges the EU to focus on circular economy and provide up to date scientific environmental information to citizens, and calls for a comprehensive, coordinated pan-European educational area.
You can read more about the entire conference here, and you can access the full list of proposals here.
The European Commission’s European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) compiled a set of ten indicators, and using them, measured how 37 European countries perform on the field of equality and inclusion. The findings were published in the report “Towards Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education in Europe”. This report concluded that inclusivity in higher education leaves much to be desired.
The “Towards Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education in Europe” report can be found here.
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) also had inclusivity-related issues on its agenda: it published a report on racial and ethnic inequalities in the chemical sciences. The “Missing Elements” report’s key findings introduce the lack of diversity in senior academic roles in the UK, as well as the disadvantages minority and ethnic principal investigators face, such as the lower amount of average funding received.
RSC organised a live launch event for the release of the report, where RSC CEO Dr Helen Pain, Professor Robert Mokaya, Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu, Kevin Coutinho and Professor Marina Resmini discussed the findings, and called for addressing and acknowledging the issue. In order to do so, with the launch of the report, the RSC committed to a five-point programme aimed at reducing inequalities. The commitments include financially supporting systemic change, industry partnerships and increasing representation.
The “Missing elements” report as well as the five commitments can be read here.
EFSA has published its latest European Union report on pesticide residues in food. The report covers the analysis of more than 88,000 food samples collected across the European Union in 2020. Data was obtained from the official national control activities carried out by EU Member States, as well as Iceland and Norway. The report also includes a subset of data from the EU-coordinated control programme (EU MACP) and the national control programmes (MANCP).
From the 88,141 samples analysed, a vast majority, 94.9% fell within legal limits. In contrast, maximum residue levels (MRL) were exceeded in 5.1% of the samples, which is an increase compared to 2019 (3.9%).
The data was used to complete a risk assessment analysis about dietary exposure to pesticide residues. This analysis suggested that the examined food commodities are unlikely to pose a consumer health risk. In the rare cases where the exposure for a specific pesticide/product combination was calculated to exceed the health-based guidance value, and for those pesticides for which no limit values could be established, the competent authorities took appropriate and proportionate corrective measures to address potential risks to consumers.
The full report, which covers the results by pesticide residues and by type of food products, as well as dietary exposure and risk assessments, can be found here. The detailed results are also available at EFSA’s website, as browsable charts and graphs.
