Kemianteollisuuden lausunto Euroopan komissiolle: answer on public consultation on the past, present and future of European Research & Innovation Framework programmes 2014-2027

Finnish Chemical Industry welcomes the opportunity to give input to the working program 2025-2027 under Horizon Europe but also to contribute to the design of the future R&I framework program. The EU has a big transformation process ahead and in order to deliver on its ambitions, such as climate neutrality, transition to renewable energies etc., and to achieve the twin transition objectives, the R&I funding plays a crucial role. To succeed in the green transition and to profit from that, Europe needs to level up and strive for the technology leadership in industrial solutions. A well working in-vestment fund and R&I framework need to include all TRLs and consider the factors that are im-portant for different TRL stages. For example, the publicity criteria of basic research can not apply to all stages.

It is crucial to ensure that that there is a connection between R&I and market uptake. The budget for well-functioning projects needs to be secured in all phases in the innovation funnel from research to applied research and from there to upscaling, demonstration and first industrial deployment. Also, now the bureaucracy is too heavy and should be kept to minimum. There are many national programs that has kept the reporting to minimum and succeeded to make the calls easy to understand and applying more bottom up. Horizon should also go more to that direction where the working programs are not structured according to the policy agenda. 

 Some key points:

• Both the Horizon Europe and the future R&I framework program should focus more on strengthening the European industry’s competitiveness as industry plays a key role in succeeding in twin transition and combating climate change and biodiversity loss
• Reporting obligations and bureaucracy should be lowered
• Financial support to focus areas needs to be substantial and cover all TRLs (research, applied research, upscaling, demonstration and industrial deployment)
• Success rates of projects should be improved as the applications process is demanding a need many working ours
• To gain technology leadership the working program should not automatically be structured according to the policy agenda but to be technology neutral and bottom-up

Lisätietoja

Alexandra Peth
Senior Advisor, Innovation and Finance
Tel. +43 825 9505
 alexandra.peth@kemianteollisuus.fi