According to European Commission data, Portugal has already received about 396 million euros from the Horizon Europe framework programme, which began two years ago. While these numbers aren’t stratospheric, they are still quite interesting. Especially in light of the crises we face.
If this trend continues, the country will slightly exceed, or at least, the approximately 1.200 million collected during the period of the previous framework programme, Horizonte 2020, of which it was the first of its kind in which we were net beneficiaries. That is, when we were able to obtain more financing than we injected into the program through national contributions to the European budget.
Since I was the European Parliament Rapporteur for the Horizon 2020 program that started in 2014, and already in this legislature for a range of Horizon Europe weighty initiatives, such as the European Institute for Innovation and Technology’s Strategic Agenda and partnerships with industry, I cannot help but be satisfied with the fact that Portuguese teaching and research institutions, as well as companies, have managed to maintain their competitive edge in a demanding context.
This is because – and it is important to stress – community funding for the Horizon Europe program is not distributed in the form of national or regional allocations, depending on the quality of projects submitted.
In a country where the governmental difficulties in managing the funds that reach them automatically, subject to meeting minimum requirements, were notorious, i.e. the amounts of the recovery and resilience plan, and the efforts that these companies and institutions have made in competitive access to EU financing.
If this access is difficult nowadays, in the past it was even more difficult. And I think it is fair to say that the effort we made in the European Parliament, in collaboration with the European Commission, to broaden and simplify access to the framework program for scientific research and innovation, especially starting from Horizon 2020, had a decisive impact on the paradigm shift in Portugal from a funder country to a country beneficiary.
Expanding access to underrepresented countries in the Framework Program was one of the most crucial, but also the most difficult to implement, items of the Horizon 2020 negotiations. There is no doubt that the NHRIs were able to seize this opportunity. In the framework program that preceded these negotiations (FP7), the country raised 535 million euros and doubled the value in Horizonte 2020. In addition, Portugal topped the table, among the eligible countries, in both Horizonte 2020 and Orzonte Europe, in terms of efficiency of nominations in the hub Related to expanding participation and access to distinguished scientific research.
Two of the most important tools in this logic of enlargement are the so-called teaming and twinning, which make it possible to create effective synergies between the regional funds and the Science and Innovation Program, and to promote the formation of consortia between smaller and other institutions. Already with strong participation in the framework programme, in particular from other European countries.
These federations have been very beneficial to smaller institutions, namely the National Institutions. Not only in terms of access to funding, but also in terms of opportunities to interact with partners who are global references in many fields. But I think it’s agreed that these more advanced institutions have also benefited from communicating different facts, perspectives, and ideas.
PSD MEP
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