Proposal for a decision
Annex 1 – section 1 – point 4 a (new)
4 a. Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation In order to help close the research and innovation divide in Europe, complementarity and close synergies will be developed with the Structural Funds both upstream (capacity-building in the Member States to better prepare their participation in Horizon 2020) and downstream (exploit and diffuse research and innovation results stemming from Horizon 2020). Where possible, interoperability between the two instruments will be promoted. Cumulative or combined funding will be encouraged. In this context, measures will aim at fully exploiting the potential of Europe's talent pool and thereby optimising the economic and social impact of research and innovation and will be distinct yet complementary with regard to policies and actions of the Cohesion policy Funds. These measures include: (a) Linking emerging institutions, centres of excellence and innovative regions in less developed Member States to leading international counterparts elsewhere in Europe. This will involve twinning of staff exchanges, expert advice and assistance and the development of joint strategies for the development of centres of excellence. This may be supported by the Cohesion policy funds in less developed regions. Building links with innovative clusters and recognising excellence in less developed regions, including through peer reviews and awarding labels of excellence to those institutions that meet international standards, will be considered. (b) Launching a competition for the foundation of internationally competitive research centres in cohesion regions: the candidates for the competition should be teams each comprising an innovative but still less developed region and an internationally recognised centre of excellence elsewhere in Europe. The scientific concepts underlying the newly founded research institutes should be assessed on the principle of excellence; the regions should be required to come up with a viable overall approach for an infrastructure and overall environment amenable to research and innovation, something to be built up with the help of their structural funds; this competition should provide a powerful complement to the efforts of the economically weaker regions to develop a long term smart specialisation strategy. (c) Establishing 'ERA Chairs' to attract outstanding academics to institutions with a clear potential for research excellence, in order to help these institutions fully unlock this potential and thereby create a level playing field for research and innovation in the European Research Area. This will include institutional support for creating a competitive research environment and the framework conditions necessary for attracting, retaining and developing top research talent within these institutions. (d) Conferring a "seal of excellence" on positively evaluated ERC, Marie Sklodowska-Curie or collaborative project proposals that have not been able to achieve funding because of budgetary limitations. National and regional funds might thus be encouraged to contribute to the funding of those projects that meet the criteria of excellence but cannot be funded due to lack of European funds. (e) Conferring a "seal of excellence" to completed projects in order to facilitate funding of the follow up (e.g. pilot scale, demonstration projects or valorisation of research results) by national or regional sources. (f) Attribution of ERC "Return Grants" to researchers currently working outside of Europe and who wish to work in Europe or to researchers already working in Europe who wish to move to a less developed region. (g) Support complementary agreements signed among organisations beneficiaries of the collaborative research projects with other entities and organisations established mainly in countries others than those directly involved in the project with the specific objective of facilitating training opportunities (namely doctoral and post-doctoral positions) (h) Strengthening successful networks aiming at establishing high quality institutional networking in research and innovation. Particular attention will be paid to COST in order to promote activities to identify and connect "pockets of excellence" (high-quality scientific communities and early career investigators) throughout Europe. (i) Developing specific training mechanisms on how to participate in Horizon 2020, taking full advantage of existing networks such as the National Contact Points. (j) Making available doctoral and post- doctoral fellowships, as well as advanced training fellowships for engineers for accessing all international research infrastructures in Europe, including those managed by international scientific organisations. (k) Supporting the development and monitoring of smart specialisation strategies. A policy support facility will be developed and policy learning at regional level will be facilitated through international evaluation by peers and best practice sharing. (l) Setting up an online marketplace where intellectual property can be advertised in order to bring together the owners and users of IPR.