Leopoldina Home Menü

Leopoldina Home

Press Release | Monday, 30 March 2015

Strategic EU investment fund must strengthen Europe’s research and innovation capability on a global scale

Statement of Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany

The German science organisations united in the Alliance are following with concern the current debate on the financing conditions of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) to be adopted by the EU Council and European Parliament by the end of June 2015.

The Alliance is reiterating its call for the financing of the planned EFSI investment guarantee not to affect the budget of the Horizon 2020 EU Research and Innovation programme. The Eu-ropean Research and Innovation programmes make a significant contribution to economic growth and the creation of highly specialized jobs. These programmes should therefore not be subject to cuts. This would otherwise counteract the measures concerning the Europe 2020 strategy and the Innovation Union. The proposed cuts would particularly affect the budgets of the European Research Council (ERC), which promotes outstanding basic research, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), which promotes knowledge and innovation communities, the Marie Curie Actions on the training of young researchers, the joint projects in the field of social challenges, the promotion of innovation in SMEs and the Europe-wide access of scientists to research infrastructure. The Alliance is therefore calling for other options in the EU budget to be used for the allocation of the funding required for EFSI, including the realloca-tion of appropriations as part of the review of the EU’s multiannual financial framework.

The EFSI programme’s aim should be to generate investment in research and innovation and to turn Europe into a knowledge-based economy which is even more competitive globally. Such an objective should be systematically pursued and underpinned by the inclusion of experts from the fields of research and development on the decision-making bodies for the approval of loans from the EFSI. Additional infrastructure investment, primarily in the areas of research and innovation, is essentially welcomed by the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany.

The Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany reaffirms its view that the performance ca-pability of the European Research Area should not be weakened by the EFSI investment initia-tive in the face of global competition. It therefore welcomes all current efforts aimed at pre-venting cuts to the Research Framework programme and calls upon political decision-makers not to reduce the amount of funding for the Research Framework programme in the next stages of the process.

Media contact:
Dr. Christina Beck
Head of Science and Corporate Communication
at the Max Planck Society
Tel: +49 89 2108 -1275
Email: christina.beck@gv.mpg.de

CONTACT

Leopoldina

Caroline Wichmann

Head of Department Press and Public Relations

Phone 0345 - 472 39 - 800
Fax 0345 - 472 39 - 809
E-Mail presse(at)leopoldina.org

Nutzung von großen Sprachmodellen

Mit dem Aufkommen frei verfügbarer Texterstellungswerkzeuge wie ChatGPT von OpenAI hat die Leopoldina Leitlinien zum Umgang mit diesen Modellen erstellt. Diese Leitlinien gelten für alle Publikationen, die von der Leopoldina veröffentlicht werden.