EU missions and the way forward for mission-oriented research & innovation

The leading universities of Science and Technology (S&T) united within CESAER today publish a position ‘EU missions and the way forward for mission-oriented research & innovation’.

In this position we evaluate the missions and provide our recommendations for an adjusted trajectory that envisions the missions as lean and clear instruments where a key measure-of-success is their ability to ‘crowd in’ and marshall new funding from new sources and especially from sources not typically related with research & innovation activities, toward such activities.

This realignment can be achieved by efforts in three dimensions:

1. unprogramme the missions to unleash bottom-up experimentation in science & technology;
2. shape the missions to drive new synergies across science & technology;
3. enhance citizen and stakeholder engagement to advance shared understanding of the vital role of science & technology in society.

“There is a growing consensus around the importance and urgency of boosting the role of research and innovation in enabling and driving much needed change in our society and economy. In this respect, the EU missions should be developed as instruments where a key measure of success is their ability to marshall new support and funding with a whole-society approach that captures the imagination and enthusiasm of the broader community and our societal stakeholders, as well as boosting European research and innovation.” - Tim Bedford, Vice President 2024-2025 of CESAER, Co-Chair of the Task Force Innovation and Associate Principal of University of Strathclyde

“To strengthen the resilience of the EU, we suggest allocating the current mission budget to the clusters. With this budget, regular Horizon Europe cluster calls are to be launched on mission topics, but unencumbered by the mission governance approach. The outcomes of these regular cluster calls on mission topics can feed into the missions. We call for financing the missions themselves, via budget transfers to Horizon Europe, from member state, regional and other sources.” - Wendy Sonneveld, Member of the CESAER Presidency Team, Co-Chair of the Task Force Sustainable Funding and Senior Policy Advisor European Affairs at Ghent University

“EU missions were well intentioned but have not, so far, proven entirely successful, and in this respect we welcome the efforts of the European Commission to re-evaluate the missions and their outstanding challenges. With this position, our association and its Members stand ready to support the European Commission to adjust the EU missions and pave the way for mission-oriented research & innovation that fully enable participation across actors, bottom-up experimentation and system-wide innovation.” - Louise Drogoul, Advisor for Innovation & Sustainability at CESAER

• The full paper is available here for distribution (PDF)

For more information, please contact our Information & Communication Officer, Justine Moynat