Supporting research and innovation

Abstract

At the third Research and Innovation Day, which took place in June 2021, Mariya Gabriel, EC Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, stated: 'Our ambition is to build a renewed innovation policy that provides smart investments for scaling up companies, new forms of financial instruments and how to best exploit synergies between EU, national and regional funds.' Cross-border cooperation is key to overcoming challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic and, as such, the recently released Communication on Global Approach for Research and Innovation document defines a global strategy for cooperation with other countries and entities. A key focus for Horizon Europe is on improving health, mobility, energy efficiency and food security, as well as tackling climate change and preserving cultural heritage. The programme encompasses diverse instruments for covering a range of projects, an extended duration and an increased budget. In order to be as impactful as possible, Horizon Europe collaborates with other European programmes and Gabriel believes that public-private cooperation is another tool that can be used to maximise the impact of the programme. For example, she said that collaborating with industry is key to overcoming technological challenges such as the development of clean Hydrogen or High Performance Computing. The development of a flexible and collaborative innovation ecosystem that involves the input of diverse stakeholders is a key part of Horizon Europe's strategy. A key word here is synergy and this includes synergies at all levels, between policies, programmes and instruments.