Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2019)330 - Strategic Innovation Agenda of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) 2021-2027: Boosting the Innovation Talent and Capacity of Europe - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2019)330 - Strategic Innovation Agenda of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) 2021-2027: Boosting the Innovation ... |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2019)330  |
| date | 11-07-2019 |
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL
• Reasons for and objectives of the proposal
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) was established in 2008 by Regulation (EC) No 294/2008 1 . Its purpose is to address major societal challenges by improving the innovation capacity and performance of the EU through the integration of the knowledge triangle of education, research and innovation. The EIT achieves these goals primarily through its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs).
For the period 2021-2027, Horizon Europe will be the Union programme funding the EIT. The EIT is an integral part of the Commission proposal establishing Horizon Europe 2 and one of the three components of its 'Innovative Europe' pillar. The Horizon Europe proposal sets out the budget for the EIT for the next MFF as well as its rationale, added value, areas of intervention and broad lines of activity. However, the Horizon Europe proposal itself does not provide the legal basis for continuing the EIT operations as from 2021 . The legal base of the EIT remains the EIT Regulation that sets out its mission, its key tasks and the framework for its functioning.
Furthermore, Article 17 of the EIT Regulation requires that every seven years the Commission submits to the European Parliament and the Council a proposal for a Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA) that lays down the priority fields and the long-term strategy and financial needs for the EIT. The SIA therefore needs to be in line with the applicable Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 3 . For the period 2021-2027, the SIA should thus ensure alignment with the objectives of Horizon Europe as well as the strategic multiannual planning, monitoring and other requirements of that programme, and foster synergies with other relevant programmes.
The present proposal for a new Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA) of the EIT for 2021-2027 is therefore submitted alongside the proposal for a recast of the EIT Regulation.
The SIA of the EIT for 2021-2027 lays down the priority fields, the strategy and financial needs for the EIT for that period and sets how the EIT will contribute to the attainment of the objectives of Horizon Europe. It also outlines the planned higher education, research and innovation activities and the respective budget breakdown. It sets the time schedule for the selection and designation of new KICs for the next programming period.
• Consistency with existing policy provisions in the policy area
The EIT is integrated within Horizon Europe as part of its Pillar III (“Innovative Europe”). However, the synergies and complementarities with the other components of the programme will be ensured. The EIT through its KICs will also contribute to addressing the global challenges under Pillar II (“Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”) and Pillar I (“Excellent Science”).
The multiannual Strategic Planning process under Horizon Europe will ensure that all activities under Horizon Europe, including the EIT KICs, which are institutionalised European partnerships, are coordinated in an effective manner. In this context, the Horizon Europe proposal emphasises that “proposals for future EIT KICs in compliance with the EIT Regulation will be indicated in the SIA and will take into account the outcome of the Strategic Planning process and the priorities of the Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness pillar”.
Cooperation between the EIT and the European Innovation Council (EIC) will also be established with a view to avoid duplications and ensure synergies and greater impact of their actions. The EIC will identify, develop and deploy breakthrough innovations, and support the rapid scale-up of innovative firms carrying out market-creating innovations at the European and international levels. For its part, the EIT will contribute to the development of Europe’s innovation capacity through the knowledge triangle integration and support to innovation ecosystems.
• Consistency with other Union policies
The SIA will foster synergies not only with the Union framework programme supporting research and innovation but also with other relevant Union programmes of the respective MFF. In particular, it will ensure appropriate synergies and complementarities between the EIT activities and other Union initiatives, policies and instruments. Cooperation will be pursued with regard to programmes and instruments such as Erasmus, Digital Europe, the European Structural and Investment Funds, the InvestEU Programme or Creative Europe. Furthermore, synergies and complementarities of EIT and KIC activities with national programmes and initiatives will be ensured through the enhanced role of the Member States’ Representatives Group.
2. LEGAL BASIS, SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY
• Legal basis
The EU has a shared competence in industry policy based on Article 173 TFEU (Title XVII). According to Article 173(1), the Union and the Member States shall ensure that conditions necessary for the competitiveness of the Union's industry exist. For that purpose, in accordance with a system of open and competitive markets, their action shall be aimed also at fostering better exploitation of the industrial potential of policies of innovation, research and technological development. Article 173(3) foresees that the European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure referred to in Article 294, may decide on specific measures in support of action taken in the Member States to achieve the mentioned objective, excluding any harmonisation of the laws and regulations of the Member States. This provision is the legal basis of the current EIT Regulation and of the SIA 2014-2020.
The proposed reinforcement of the activities of the EIT, including in the area of education and the regional dimension, is innovation-driven and aims to fulfil the objective set out in Article 173 TFEU.
• Subsidiarity and proportionality
The proposal for a Strategic Innovation Agenda for 2021 - 2027 respects the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. It does not go beyond what is required for achieving the Union's objectives and provides a clear EU added-value in terms of economies of scale, scope and speed of investments in research and innovation areas, compared to national and regional initiatives and solutions. Moreover, EU action would not interfere with purely domestic scenarios or require harmonisation of the laws and regulations of the Member States.
The EIT has a unique way of building EU-wide innovation ecosystems of education, research, business and other stakeholders. 4 Cooperation activities supported by the EIT lead to an increased quality of action, innovation and internationalisation of KIC partners and organisations, the creation of cross-border, multidisciplinary networks, more cross-sectoral cooperation and geographical outreach.
The EIT is also the sole instrument within Horizon Europe with a distinct focus on education as a key driver of innovation, growth and competitiveness.
3. RESULTS OF EX-POST EVALUATIONS, STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
The proposal builds on the external evaluation of the EIT carried out in 2017 which confirmed that the rationale behind the establishment of the EIT is valid and that its model of innovation-driven knowledge triangle integration remains relevant. The EIT model targets structural weaknesses of the innovation capacities in the EU (in key thematic areas) such as the limited entrepreneurial culture, the low level of cooperation between academia and industry and the insufficient development of human potential, and aims to contribute to closing the innovation gap between the EU and its key competitors.
The proposal takes into account the results of the Open Public Consultation (OPC) that was run as a component of the European Commission’s Impact assessment to support its proposals for revision of the Regulation establishing the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) (EC No 294/2008) and for a new Strategic Innovation Agenda of the EIT for 2021-2027. The purpose of the OPC was to gather information, opinions and views from a wide range of stakeholders on 1) the challenges and opportunities in the European research and innovation area, 2) the policy objectives of the EIT, and 3) the policy options to tackle the challenges.
This proposal is supported by an Impact Assessment covering both the proposals for revision of the EIT Regulation and for a SIA of the EIT for the period 2021 – 2027.
The Impact Assessment on the EIT built on the Impact Assessment carried out for Horizon Europe. The opinion of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board was “positive” recommending to further explain (i) the stakeholder views of the different options, (ii) the delivery mechanisms of the new funding model and (iii) the regional outreach.
The impact assessment identified the following policy options: a baseline option and two different options addressing the problems and technical issues highlighted in the impact assessment.
The baseline option 1 represents the continuation of EIT’s activities as they are today with only the adjustments necessary to align it with the proposal for Horizon Europe. Option 2 builds on the baseline. In addition, it adopts a number of technical measures to enhance the functioning of the EIT and proposes a new action to foster entrepreneurial education across Europe. Option 3 differs from option 2 in that it would set up an EIT Hub in each Member State in order to increase the impact of the EIT activities all across Europe.
Option 2 was identified as the preferred option as it strikes the best balance in achieving the objectives of the initiative while considering the resources available and offering the highest economic and societal impacts. It will also entail significant improvements of the EIT in the next programming period.
• Fundamental rights
The Commission proposal respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
4. BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS
The budgetary implications of the proposal as well as the human and administrative resources required are described in detail in the legislative financial statement.
5. OTHER ELEMENTS
• Implementation plans and monitoring, evaluation and reporting arrangements
Monitoring and evaluation are fundamental tools in measuring the impact of the EIT and will be further strengthened and continuously improved over the next programming period. Given the nature of the knowledge triangle integration model, it will be important to apply a monitoring framework that allows flexibility at all relevant levels and ensures coherence with the general objectives of Horizon Europe and impacts sought.
All inputs, outputs, results and impacts identified in the impact assessment accompanying this proposal will be monitored through indicators. Such indicators already exist for the majority of the categories. Whenever they do not exist, new indicators will be developed in order to enable the EIT to monitor the achievement of its objectives.
In parallel and in full compliance with existing monitoring tools, close alignment will be sought between the EIT monitoring provisions and those that are put in place for Horizon Europe. For example, the EIT will align its monitoring tools with the Impact Pathways of Horizon Europe that seek to address the need for scientific, economic and societal impacts indicators more comprehensively. It will be a responsibility of the EIT to regularly monitor the operational performance of the KICs and to adapt its monitoring and reporting systems continuously. The results of such monitoring will feed into the business planning processes of the KICs and into the EIT decision-making on the allocation of the budget and preparation of the framework partnership agreements with the KICs as beneficiaries. The monitoring results should feed continuously into the policy-making process.
EIT will closely follow the deployment of the Innovation Radar methodology in Horizon Europe, and will explore how Innovation Radar could be leveraged by the KICs for enhancement of its monitoring activities.
The evaluation of the performance of the EIT will be carried out by the Commission in line with the requirements of the amended EIT Regulation and will feed into the overall Horizon Europe programme evaluation that will be carried out mid-term and ex-post. This will include an assessment of the synergies of the EIT with the other instruments of the programme.
With regard to the KICs, a specific indicator framework will be used to assess the performance of the KICs during the next programming period (detailed in the proposal for a new SIA). That framework draws from current and previous indicators, fills gaps and deficiencies identified in the existing performance measurement system. It is also aligned with the Horizon Europe indicator framework.
• Detailed explanation of the specific provisions of the proposal
The Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA) of the EIT for 2021-2027 underlines the EIT’s contribution to the objectives of Horizon Europe, the Union framework programme supporting research and innovation for that period. It identifies the key strengths of the EIT on which to build its future strategy and the specific challenges and issues that it will address. Furthermore, the SIA clarifies the role of the EIT in the Horizon Europe programme and sets out its complementarity to the various parts of Horizon Europe, notably also the European Innovation Council.
The SIA includes a number of improvements to the existing EIT model. They concern the alignment with the European partnerships under Horizon Europe and their governing rules, the improvement of the current funding model as recommended by the European Court of Auditors and the inclusion of the possibility for the EIT to conclude memoranda of cooperation with KICs to keep former KICs as active members of the EIT Community after the termination of their framework partnership agreement.
The SIA provides specific clarifications on principles established in the EIT Regulation. It provides an overview of the financial and human resources needed for the implementation of the EIT objectives. Clear monitoring and evaluation provisions are defined taking into account the Horizon Europe framework and the EIT’s specificities.
In addition, the SIA introduces clear objectives for a new support and coordination action to be launched. This new action will support the development of entrepreneurial and innovation capacity of European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) beyond KICs in order to enable them to be better integrated in local innovation ecosystems. The EIT Label will be part of the reinforced education focus of the EIT.
The EIT will put a strong emphasis on cross-cutting actions such as communication, identification, codification and dissemination of good practices, and international cooperation. Another key area of action for the EIT will be the expansion and strengthening of its regional outreach through the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS). RIS will offer in particular opportunities to Member States with low innovation performance and enhance their access to the EIT KICs.
The SIA identifies Cultural and Creative Industries as a priority field for a new KIC with a call to be launched in 2021. A second call for a new KIC is foreseen in 2024 if Annex I is amended to add new priority fields. Other priority fields could be added in the SIA and, subsequently, further calls for new KICs could be launched in case additional budget to that of the EIT would become available.