Efficient health research and improving Europeans' health.

Abstract

The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP) Horizon 2020, for the period 2014–2020, represents a significant effort to support research activities. Almost 80 billion euros in current prices are going to be allocated to these activities over 7 years (versus the 50 billion budget of the 7th FP) which, under three major headings—Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges—have recently opened their calls for research projects. Health and biomedical research initiatives can be mostly channeled through the ‘‘Health, demographic change and wellbeing’’ chapter of the Societal Challenges heading, representing about 10 % of the total budget [1]. Furthermore, some other health related projects could also apply for funds under the ‘‘Food Security’’ and the ‘‘European Research Council’’ chapters, with the latter falling into the Excellent Science heading. In comparative terms with the last EU 7th FP, Horizon 2020 has notably increased the budget specifically dedicated to health research (from € 5.57 up to € 8.03 billion). In addition to this FP, the EU is currently running the 3rd Health Programme [2]; it is considered to be the main instrument for implementing the EU Health Strategy (funded with about € 450 million) and is complementary to the EU FP Horizon 2020. Among other goals, this programme specifically pursues research into public health, the efficiency and sustainability of health systems and human resources management. When such an important amount of public resources is spent (i.e. invested) to finance research, evaluation activities, ex ante and ex post, are crucial in the whole process. After identifying the potential research topics, a first evaluation (qualitative at this stage) must be performed to prioritize them under different criteria (health improvements for some target populations, integration of research networks, profitability for the industry, potential stakeholders for the innovation, and so on). The targets of the calls of the FPs usually reflect the interests of several stakeholders, represented by the Advisory Groups (AGs), the European Technology Platforms (ETPs) and the Programme Committees (PCs). The specific work-programmes are elaborated and reviewed by these three groups, with representatives of Member States in the PCs. Then, the call for proposals is issued and a second evaluation has to be carried out to select which ones are funded. The purpose of this evaluation is to reduce the uncertainties of allocating resources to some groups that may not perform the research as desired, and rather assign funds to those groups more likely to achieve the expected results. This evaluation considers several aspects, such the adequacy of the team and its critical mass for the projects, the fragmentation/integration of the research, the experience of the research team, the adequacy of means and planned activities of the project, the legality of the procedures, etc. This evaluation is carried out by panels of independent experts, organized by and under the supervision of the Directorate General Research and Innovation (DG R&I), and enhances the efficiency of the research process, although it does not directly perform an economic evaluation: that would be very difficult at this stage. Another evaluation—ex post—is implemented after the execution of the research process. Although this evaluation should theoretically assess the value of the research outcomes, in practical terms it mainly focuses on administrative aspects (control of invoices, payments, and the period between the authorization to run the research and & Fernando Antonanzas fernando.antonanzas@unirioja.es