European Research Area as a trailblazer

LEUVEN, 4 July 2023

The 58 leading universities of science and technology united within CESAER today publish a position ‘European Research Area as a trailblazer’.

Recalling our long-standing commitments and efforts to reinforce the European Research Area (ERA) including through our joint partnership (2015) and recent contributions (2022), we welcome the progress made on almost all of the twenty actions of the ERA Policy Agenda 2022-2024 to advance the ERA.

In the position published today, we provide recommendations for further advancement of the ERA and towards shaping the ERA Policy Agenda 2025-2027.

Recommendations are provided along four dimensions:

• ERA progress
• ERA monitoring
• ERA as a Lisbon Treaty obligation
• ERA as a trailblazer

Rik Van de Walle (President of CESAER and Rector of Ghent University) said:

“Our association is pleased to be an active contributor to the ERA Forum and the ERA university associations group, and we welcome that there is progress across most actions.

“To build on this success and advance further together in an evidence-based manner, we look forward to the full roll-out of all ERA monitoring tools.”

Mattias Björnmalm (Secretary General) said:

“With the current success and the high visibility of the ERA and the ERA Forum, also come new pressures and challenges. We can already see that the ERA is being pushed in new different directions, some not as welcomed as others. We particularly must avoid the risk of downgrading or diluting the ERA from its elevated status as an obligation of the Lisbon Treaty.

“With the position published today, we propose a way to buttress this effort with the help of two ‘control questions’, to help ensure that the ERA maintains its strong and elevated status.”

Position

• Full position (PDF) available for download and distribution

Contact

For more information, please contact Mattias Björnmalm (Secretary General).

Photo credit

Photo taken during the CESAER events with our Board of Directors kindly hosted by the National Technical University of Athens from 19 to 20 June 2023 where the Board discussed ongoing strategic trajectories at the EU level, including related to the European Research Area.