On August 10, new research valorisation guidelines were published, concerning Research and Innovation, by the European Commission. Such valorisation measures aim to increase the social and economic impact of research, and assist member states to coordinate, using non-binding policy instruments.

The guidelines recommend policymakers and stakeholders in member states to ensure the availability of national-level support structures, consider wide-scope societal use and valorisation of government funded R&I projects, and promote diversity and equality measures in research. They also propose the development of far reaching systems of incentives to involve SMEs, civil society, citizens, end-users and public authorities in innovation processes, alongside multiple proposals to improve peer learning. Lastly, they emphasize the importance of sufficient tools to measure the effectiveness of knowledge valorisation. The establishment of collaborative, transferable metrics is also proposed.

Albeit sponsored by the Commission, these guiding principles are non-binding. They have emerged in the context of the establishment of a European Research Area (ERA), the research equivalent of the Union’s “single market”, introduced in 2020. Since 2021, knowledge valorisation is one of the key principles of the ERA policy agenda, alongside “smart” intellectual property use and open science.