EU Leaders Shrink Science Funding in Budget Deal

At a five-day summit held in Brussels in July, European Union (EU) leaders agreed to a 7-year, €1.8 trillion budget and pandemic recovery fund, which includes €81 billion for Horizon Europe — EU’s flagship research program — and €750 billion for pandemic recovery. For the next seven years, starting January 2021, Horizon Europe will receive a slightly higher funding level compared to its €80 billion predecessor program Horizon 2020 and nearly €13.5 billion less than the amount proposed by the European Commission in June. In fact, the core Horizon Europe budget for the 2021-2027 period, excluding the €5 billion in pandemic recovery funds, is now €76 billion. The European Parliament had initially requested €120 billion for the program. Kurt Deketelaere, Secretary-General of the League of European Research Universities called the spending cuts “a major disappointment and a breach of trust,” given European politicians’ rhetoric on the importance of research, according to Science Insider. “In the end, the compromise was to spend less money on the recovery and lose all ambitions on innovation. This is bad news for European growth and competitiveness,” said Christian Ehler, the European Parliament’s spokesperson on research and development, innovation, industry and energy. The European Research Council (ERC), EU’s basic research funding organization, will not receive any recovery funding under the agreemen...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news