Ensuring budget stability will be a key priority for Iliana Ivanova, the EU’s research commissioner-to-be, if MEPs accept her appointment in a vote later in September.
Pending Parliament’s approval, Iliana Ivanova will take the reins as commissioner for research, innovation and education later this month. With European elections due in June 2024, interest groups in Brussels now want her to look beyond what will be a short tenure and focus on the first phases of shaping the next EU research framework programme, due to start in 2028.
The five high profile Horizon Europe research Missions set up to address grand challenges in areas including climate change, cancer and water pollution are not working out as planned after failing to pull in external funding, the new head of EU research Marc Lemaître admitted in one of his first public outings since taking up the role in February.
The 2023 Science|Business Widening annual conference will provide a first public assessment of how the Horizon Europe Widening agenda is working. On the table is €3.3 billion, but we will sample expert opinion about progress to date, and challenges to overcome. And we will showcase the CEE region’s success stories and investment opportunities for an audience of senior policy makers, investors, entrepreneurs and researchers from both East and West.
A fifth of the proposals submitted by Czech researchers under Horizon Europe in the past year and a half are to receive funding, according to an early analysis of success rates.