Joint Declaration on Boosting Europe’s Future Competitiveness as Key Priority for FP9 Published

EFFRA and 23 leading European industrial research and innovation stakeholder organisations have today published a second joint declaration calling for support for Europe’s future competitiveness to be a key priority in FP9, the future EU research and innovation programme.

The declaration states that in order to fulfil European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s wish to “make our industry stronger and more competitive” and to “help our industries stay or become the world leader in innovation”, FP9 should from the start prioritise support to industrial competitiveness. This requires an ambitious strategy, taking full advantage of current research successes, understanding emerging risks and opportunities, considering the wider international industrial landscape, and focusing on European added value.

The EU needs to anticipate developments in the US and Asia in key technology areas that form the basis of our society’s future products and services. Therefore, our declaration calls for an FP9 design which reflects such priorities and aim at:

• Supporting European cross-border industry-driven collaborative RD&I. European public-private partnerships (cPPPs and JTIs) shall continue to play a crucial role in leveraging private sector investments, linking those with EU, national and regional efforts, as well as in helping SMEs and Start-ups engage in EU and international supply chains.

• Maximising the impact of the EU funded RD&I for society, building on Horizon 2020’s efforts.

• Strengthening European industries’ capacities to further absorb and scale up novel technologies matured into new products and services and apply them in addressing global challenges.

• Strengthening Europe’s capabilities to keep on top of the “innovation race” with third countries in order to safeguard Europe’s economic growth and employment. The forthcoming FP9 should enable Europe to remain at the forefront of RD&I by supporting the development of innovative technologies and skills with the view to address societal challenges and create new markets and new industries.

EFFRA and the other signatories of this Joint Declaration are ready to strengthen our cooperation with the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union to define and implement an ambitious FP9.

View Declaration