Joint position paper on the Common Strategic Framework and the Innovation Union April 2011
Joint position paper on the Common Strategic Framework1 and the Innovation Union.
1 Europe in 2020: the role of science and innovation
At a time of public budget constraints and
increasing global competition, there is much at
stake: Europe’s competitiveness, our capacity to
create millions of new jobs to replace those being
lost in the current financial crisis. Overall, our
future standard of living depends on our ability to
be innovative in products, services, business and
social processes and models. This challenge is
reflected in the positioning of innovation in the
Europe 2020 strategy.
Innovation is our best means of successfully
tackling the Grand Challenges, expressed in the
Lund Declaration in 2009. These Grand Challenges
will to a large extent determine future
developments in our societies, our economies, our
politics, and accordingly, our science, research and
training.
Science will play a decisive role to achieve the
necessary innovation. In order to be effective, the
scientific community has to develop into long-term
internationally operating coalitions combining the
best expertise and interact intensively with social,
economic and policy partners.
An exciting new challenge for Europe is the
knowledge-based bio-economy. Initiated by the
need to decrease dependence on fossil fuels, it is
now generally acknowledged that the bio-economy
discloses many new applications that far exceed
the potential of fossil resources. Innovation in
agriculture will play a significant role in fostering
the competitiveness of this knowledge-based bio-
economy in Europe. This will lead to new,
sustainable products and processes based on
renewable raw materials.
2 The innovative strength of the agricultural sector
During the next century, mankind will face a three-fold challenge: to provide sufficient high-quality food
for 9 billion people while preserving the environment and natural resources in a world with increasingly
scarce fossil fuel resources. World agriculture is a key element in meeting this challenge. Further, the
agricultural sector has proven to act as a motor for economic growth by its high innovative power.
1 In this paper, for the sake of simplicity, we use FP8 to refer to the Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation funding.
What is at stake?
Food security
To meet the expected future global demand for food and a
healthy diet and at the same time preventing significant increases
of food prices and substantially decreasing negative effects of
food production on our ecosystems, we need to double food
production while using the same or less inputs (land, water,
energy etc.), and strongly reducing waste and adverse
environmental impacts - particularly the emission of greenhouse
gases.
Climate change
GHG emissions are accelerating three times faster than
anticipated by IPCC 2001 authors and it is predicted that this will
lead to severe summer drought in South Europe and the
Mediterranean basin and an increase in extreme weather events.
Biodiversity
Agriculture is a major driver of global biodiversity changes, e.g.
due to conversion of natural habitats into farmland. Agriculture
also heavily relies upon biodiversity (genetic resources,
pollination services, etc.).
Ecosystems services
Intensification of agriculture has led to degradation of ecosystem
services and has increased the production of GHG and reduced
levels of carbon sequestration. It is therefore necessary to protect
forests and promote soil conservation.
Natural resources preservation
Water supply: 70% of the global fresh water supply is used in
agriculture (FAO).
Energy: Plants and algae will be the only source of liquid fuel in a
future oil-free world
And also: A healthy diet, Land use, New diseases and pests,
Healthy ageing,
Joint position paper on the Common Strategic Framework and the Innovation Union April 2011
In this way, agriculture contributes effectively to achieving both the Lund Declaration and the Europe
2020 policy. Innovation in the agricultural sector should be viewed in a broad context. Obviously there is
innovation in terms of the development of novel products (such as new cropping and farming systems or
improved plant/crop varieties or food
products), the evolution and introduction of
new services, and changes to farming and
forestry practices and food production
systems. But the agricultural sector – and
hence the research domains of our
institutions - has made and will make
significant contributions to related themes
such as safe and healthy food, green energy
production, biobased materials, biorefinery,
water supply and water safety, and
sustainable green technology.
The agricultural domains play an important
role in addressing many of today’s Grand
Challenges. Food security, climate change,
land use, biodiversity, ecosystem services,
water supply, emergence of new diseases
and pests all interact directly with
agriculture. This will require a more
systemic and integrative approach in
research.
We expect research and innovation in our domains to play a key role in maintaining and strengthening
Europe’s competitiveness and ability to face these Grand Challenges. Therefore, realizing the full
potential of innovation in the agricultural sector will require a holistic view of the range of goods and
services that can be derived from it.
3 A promising context
Our institutes welcome a number of recent developments in FP7 and the European Research Area.
Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) and Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) fit in the
previously referenced trend of the increased relevance of scientific cooperation inside Europe and in
cooperating with partners outside Europe.
We are actively involved in the JPIs “Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change” and “Healthy Diet
for a Healthy Life”. We hope to play a key role in shaping their success.
ERC-grants have proven to be an effective new pillar of FP7. Innovation-oriented approaches and
instruments are based on scientific excellence, and we need cutting-edge fundamental research to feed
this excellence. We therefore support the EU-instruments to promote frontier research through ERC-
grants, and the proposed ERC proof of concept scheme.
We highly appreciate the ESFRI instrument, acknowledging that excellent research facilities are
imperative for high scientific quality. We specifically welcome the addition of agriculture oriented
infrastructures in the ESFRI roadmap (in particular ANAEE, integrated experimental facilities for studying
the dynamics of evolution of ecosystems).
We welcome the new initiatives presented in the Europe2020 strategy and the Innovation Flagship
Initiative and particularly the accent on the grand challenges with a comprehensive and integrated
Features of agricultural research:
• Multiple targets: food and nutrition, environment, rural
development
• Object driven: a continuum between basic and applied science,
leading to innovation
• Public and private partnerships, throughout the food chain and
across rural and urban areas
• Agricultural systems that promote sustainable food security
• Multidisciplinary: (systems) biology, computing, bioinformatics,
modelling, food technology, molecular biology, entomology,
agronomy, sociology, economics
Future breakthrough technologies can lead to:
• White (industrial) and green biotechnologies
• New, innovative food & biomass production, efficiently using water, nutrients and solar radiation efficiently (on land, on sea)
• Novel control of pests and diseases • Synthetic approaches such as 4th generation biofuels
• Make the healthy choice, the easy choice: product innovation
Joint position paper on the Common Strategic Framework and the Innovation Union April 2011
Innovation: how?
• One example of how innovation may occur is through
the KICs (Knowledge and Innovation Communities).
These are long-term strategic initiatives that will bring
together European excellence in education, research
and business – the whole value chain for innovation.
FOODBEST, an initiative for a KIC in which our
institutes are actively involved, aims to trigger the
enormous potential of the European food sector,
focusing on health, sustainability and food security. It
will also bring great opportunities for new important
scientific fields and business areas at the crossroads
between food, energy, health, ICT, life sciences,
logistics, etc. Bringing such core competencies of
Europe together in high-prioritized cross-border
collaborations will bring Europe in a favourable global
competitive situation.
• We see programmes such as Eurostars as an
important link between the underpinning research that
we feel must be supported by the FP and innovation.
Eurostars, a joint initiative between EUREKA and the
7th FP, plays an important role by providing funding for
market-oriented research and development with the
active participation of research and development-
performing small- and medium enterprises.
• While both large companies and SMEs are important
for innovation, the specific needs of SMEs sometimes
make it hard to include them in collaborative programs.
Specific projects aimed at SMEs, that may include
research, are Innovation could also be stimulated by
linking collaborative projects with projects aimed at
‘research for the benefit of SMEs’, to further valorize
the outcomes of research projects.
approach (research to innovation to policy). We expect these orientations to continue in FP8. Because of
the important place of agricultural research in meeting these grand challenges, we are ready to take a
leading role.
4 Science for impact is needed in FP8
We envisage a Framework Programme that contributes
to trends and challenges by reinforcing the competitive
position of European industries, research and education.
Both excellence and impact should be the base of FP8.
The developments in science and society in the next
decades, and the role of research and innovation in our
domains therein, in our view necessitate that the
balance between cooperative and fundamental research
is preserved.
We also expect administrative rules and regulations to
be modified in order to reduce administrative burdens
and ease participation of various types of participants
as mentioned above.
Finally, we expect a budget that is coherent with the
ambitions of meeting the research needs in Europe.
A Framework Programme constructed around these
starting points would, in our view, involve the following
eight features:
4.1 Structure FP8 around the grand societal
challenges
A structuring of FP8 around the grand societal
challenges would provide an excellent, integrated
umbrella to stimulate and foster a disciplinary and
interdisciplinary knowledge chain from fundamental
research to demonstration and innovation.
It would stimulate the development of interactions
among researchers as well as between researchers and
SME’s and provide a clear framework to involve
European citizens in the added value and societal
impact of research. We plead for specific instruments
for each step in the process.
A structuring around the grand societal challenges would also allow:
• Simplification of communication and access to researchers
• Fostering of interdisciplinary approaches
• Simplification of financing tools and procedures
• Covering all areas of action, and an appropriate range of instruments from fundamental research to
actions of demonstration and innovation
• Greater financial efficiency
Joint position paper on the Common Strategic Framework and the Innovation Union April 2011
4.2 Create a coordinated effort between FP8 and other instruments
Combining FP8 funded research with structural funds and approaches like Joint Programming Initiatives
(JPIs), Knowledge and Innovation Centres (KICs), ETPs, ERA-NETs and the Competitiveness and
Innovation Programme (CIP) with FP8-funded research, allows a differentiated and effective approach,
and we highly recommend to maintain and strengthen this differentiated approach in the future. Such a
coordinated effort, focussed on innovation and competitiveness, would result in a complete vision of the
continuum research-innovation and would facilitate the challenges at each step in this continuum.
The same goes for infrastructures: a link between FP funding and structural funds is particularly
important, and political coherence should be sought on the questions of investments, equipment and
construction.
Consequently, we welcome the call for more attention for agricultural innovation under the Common
Agricultural Policy, as formulated in the recently published report of the European Commission “the CAP
towards 2020”. We strongly recommend, however, to align this ambition with similar goals that may be
implemented under FP8.
4.3 Foster easy and efficient involvement of industry and SMEs
We support the work done by ETPs and JTIs in fostering the discussion between research and industry
and think these should continue in FP8.
Nonetheless, a mandatory participation of SMEs in collaborative programs is not necessarily always the
most effective way to link SMEs to research programs. We think that linking research and innovation by
stimulation of industrial participation, could be facilitated by making it easier (in the rules for
participation and the financial regulations) to add new industrial partners into a project during its
execution. In this way it would be possible to introduce industrial partners into the project at the
moment that is interesting for them (demonstration phase, innovation phase, further market
development etc.). In addition to the suggestions above, innovation could also be further stimulated by
linking collaborative projects with projects aimed at ‘research for the benefit of SMEs’, to further valorise
the outcomes of research projects.
4.4 Address the complete knowledge chain
We expect and hope that many different science-related instruments within and outside FP8 will be
developed to further support the Innovation Flagship Initiative. These instruments will affect various
elements of the total knowledge chain. An integrated approach from fundamental research up to
innovation addressing society’s grand challenges with specific instruments for each step in the process is
needed to effectively capitalize on existing knowledge and simultaneously feed the knowledge chain for
future competiveness. We see this taking place through the support of knowledge exchange, a
continuous dialogue between actors at all steps of the chain. Innovation networks, which promote
interactions between researchers, stakeholders and citizens, can provide positive feedback loops
between research and innovation.
4.5 Acknowledge the importance of fundamental research
A focus on innovation should not prevent to stimulate the further development of fundamental research,
as innovation-oriented approaches and instruments, are based on scientific excellence. To avoid drying
up the source of innovation, we need excellent fundamental research. This may need specific attention
under FP8. The ERC-grants have proven to be an effective new pillar of FP7, but apart from these
individual grants, we believe that high risk, scientifically driven bottom up collaborative projects on
emerging scientific fields are of high importance. We therefore plead for more room in FP8 for
Joint position paper on the Common Strategic Framework and the Innovation Union April 2011
Our contribution
INRA, Wageningen UR and BBSRC consider research and innovation of major importance in tackling the Grand Challenges that
Europe faces. A Framework Programme structured around these Grand Challenges, taking into account the above mentioned
features, would encourage our institutions’ work and collaboration in fields such as Food Security, Climate Change, Biobased
Economy, Health, Healthy Ageing, Obesity, Pests, Zoonotic Diseases, Biodiversity, Water, and Energy.
In this way, we will contribute significantly to Europe’s competitiveness and innovative capacity. Our efforts will lead to new,
sustainable products and processes, as well as innovative services, business- and social processes and related models.
instruments like FET (Future Emerging Technologies) to boost this kind of projects. Such projects may
complement the individual ERC grants.
4.6 Maintain mobility instruments
The building of Europe’s science base can be strengthened through enhanced possibilities for mobility at
all different career stages, through increased funding of Marie Curie Actions.
4.7 Simplify the financial rules and modalities
We urge for a simplification of the financial rules, and a more trust based approach. We suggest "basic
rules" which would apply to all FP-programmes and instruments, as well as related instruments.
In addition, the alignment of the modalities of regional, national and European programs can reduce the
administrative burden, and will also create synergies. Nationally approved accounting and management
principles, as used by the national agencies, should therefore be leading; a full cost-approach, based on
'national accounting principles'.
In addition, aiming for larger projects than in FP7, can help to reduce costs and also help improve the
effectiveness and impact of the projects. It permits a better structuring of research efforts and thus
offers a higher added value. In our view, too many projects in FP7 are financed at around 3M€, which is
often not sufficient to meet the ambitious objectives required. A lesson can be learned from the FP7
Health theme which creates impact through larger scale projects (and funding).
4.8 Maintain a global orientation
Research at the international level should be guided by the grand challenges facing the world and should
be in line with a European strategy on international cooperation. Joint programmes between EU
countries and large RDI-intensive countries and emerging economies, as well as developing countries,
are an excellent way to position Europe more strongly in addressing Global Challenges.
In view of the increasing competition for knowledge workers on the global labour market, Europe has to
aim for a strong position in this market. In our view, the promotion of an easy participation of
researchers from third countries is part of this strategy, and should be continued in FP8. We encourage a
more coordinated approach with other countries and country groupings (industrialised & developing
countries) and welcome in this respect the role of the Strategic Forum for International Science and
Technology Cooperation (SFIC) in defining the role of the Partnership in relation to international
Summits, bi-regional S&T policy dialogues, and proposing themes and regions for bilateral S&T
cooperation.
Joint position paper on the Common Strategic Framework and the Innovation Union April 2011
ANNEX 1
INRA
As the leading agricultural research institute in Europe, and the second largest in the world for the
number of its publications, INRA carries out mission-oriented research in a continuum that ranges from
academic knowledge to innovation, from global challenges to those at a local scale, in order to ensure
healthy and high-quality food, competitive and sustainable agriculture and an environment that is
preserved and valorised.
INRA is placed under the aegis of both the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of
Agriculture and Fisheries. Its activity is defined through a quadrennial contract with these two ministries.
The research conducted at INRA concerns agriculture, food, nutrition and food safety, environment and
land management, with particular emphasis on sustainable development. INRA covers the whole field of
agricultural research including environmental research, rural areas and rural development, food and
nutrition, and employs 10 200 people (among them 1,800 researchers and 1,600 doctoral students), in
14 scientific divisions. Its budget is around 770 million €. INRA is currently launching a series of
metaprogrammes to address large issues, such as adaptation of agriculture and forests to climate
change.
INRA has a large and long experience of cooperation at the European and international level: it has been
involved in many European research projects and networks (more than 120 in FP7, 1 ERC grant) and is
coordinating more than 30 out of them. The INRA welcomes the possibility to participate in the building
of the ERA, and more specifically through its active role in the JPI “Agriculture, food security and climate
change”. It is also involved in coordination of national programmes (such as plant genomics). It runs
strategic cooperation with other agricultural research organisations around the world and especially in
Europe and with Brazil, China and India.
Wageningen UR
‘To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’. That is the mission of Wageningen UR
(University & Research centre). A staff of 6,500 and 10,000 students from over 100 countries work
everywhere around the world in the domain of healthy food and living environment for governments and
the business community-at-large. Wageningen University is the leading European university in its
domain, and is ranked number two worldwide.
The strength of Wageningen UR lies in its ability to join the forces of specialised research institutes,
Wageningen University and Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences. It also lies in the
combined efforts of the various fields of natural and social sciences. This union of expertise leads to
scientific breakthroughs that can quickly be put into practice and be incorporated into education. This is
the Wageningen Approach.
The domain of Wageningen UR consists of three related core areas:
• Food and food production
• Living environment
• Health, lifestyle and livelihood
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is one of seven UK Research
Councils that work together as Research Councils UK (RCUK). BBSRC is funded from the UK
Government's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the budget for the financial year
2009/2010 was £450M. It supports a total of around 1600 scientists and 2000 research students in
universities and institutes in the UK.
Joint position paper on the Common Strategic Framework and the Innovation Union April 2011
BBSRC’s mission is to promote and support high-quality basic, strategic and applied research and
postgraduate training relating to the understanding and exploitation of biological systems.
BBSRC currently invests around £200M a year in research in universities and research institutes relevant
to agriculture and food. Institutes which receive strategic core research funding from BBSRC provide a
strategic research capacity in sustainable agriculture and land use, animal health and welfare, and
biomedical and food sciences. These specialist centres include Rothamsted Research, Institute for Animal
Health, John Innes Centre, Institute of Food Research, Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural
Sciences (Aberystwyth University), The Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh), The Genome Analysis
Centre (TGAC). BBSRC has extensive collaborations with European partners through a variety of
funding schemes (including seven ERA-Nets and several ESF EUROCORES) and international
collaborations with funding organisations and agencies from many countries, including the USA, China,
India and Brazil.
BBSRC is leading a national joint programming initiative across 12 UK public funders of food-related
research and training through the UK Global Food Security Programme, to jointly develop research
strategy and identify priority areas and shared goals, aligning partners’ own programmes and adding
value through collaboration. The Global Food Security Programme is overseen by a programme board
(led by BBSRC) that will ensure that its priorities are complementary and add value to other cross-
government, third sector, business and international initiatives.