ALLEA statement on EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme 9 (FP9)

Together with other academic organisations, the All European Federation of Academies of Science and Humanities (ALLEA) has published a joint statement, “Living Together: Missions for Shaping the Future”, calling for further inter- and transdisciplinarity and a conscientious framing of ‘missions’ in the future EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme 9 (FP9), providing recommendations to address forthcoming social, cultural, legal and ethical challenges.

The statement follows a call by the High-Level Group (Lamy Group) on strengthening the impact of EU Research & Innovation Programmes to “adopt a mission-oriented, impact-focused approach to address global challenges”.

Recommendations listed in the document support collaborative research and innovation as a main line of engendering change and securing competitiveness in Framework Programme 9.

For missions to live up to this potential and achieve societal impact, the following aspects are crucial:

(1) be “transformative in that it generates new knowledge and understanding”,

(2) acknowledge that “innovation is more than technology”,

(3) not be too constrained on specific end-products and “a premature identification of indicators of success or failure”,

(4) be open to researchers to come up with projects of all sizes to produce innovative ideas (bottom-up approach),

(5) “integrate all countries and regions in order to counter the research and innovation divide in the European Research Area” and maintain openness towards collaboration with non-EU countries.