Press release - LERU’s first reaction to the Horizon 2020 proposals
30 November 2011
With great interest and anticipation, the League of European Research Universities (LERU) has read the just published Communication and proposals of the European Commission on Horizon 2020 – The Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
With regard to the Rules for Participation, LERU is pleased to see that the model which has proven to be very successful for the ERC grants, will now be used for almost all H2020 research projects. A reimbursement of a 100% of direct costs will mean a true simplification for the participants, not only for the administrators handling the budget, but also, and very importantly, for the principal investigators. It facilitates the financial sustainability of university participation in H2020, provided that, as announced, VAT will be considered an eligible cost for institutions that cannot recover it. The new rules should enable universities to recruit staff specifically to work on H2020 projects and thus enhance and build up the next generation of researchers in Europe. LERU does regret that cost declaration through full costing will not be possible anymore as a number of universities haveput a lot of effort in moving to full costing. We hope that this will not discourage universities to use full costing for internal management and organisational purposes, as this contributes significantly to the modernisation of Europe’s higher education.
LERU welcomes many of the other measures that guarantee an increased simplification under H2020. In particular we are pleased with a single set of rules for all components of H2020, with a broader acceptance of accounting practices of participants and with the fact that persons working exclusively on EU-projects will not need to ‘time sheet’ anymore. LERU will soon take a closer look at the different measures and rules and will evaluate them in detail.
LERU is pleased that support for and strengthening of the ERC and the Marie Curie Actions is indicated as a clear goal in the H2020 proposals. We also strongly support the extension of the FET programme to all themes. But unfortunately the budgetary proposals do not properly reflect these ambitions. LERU emphasizes that the funding for the ‘excellent science block’ should increase considerably, in particular for both the ERC and the Marie Curie Actions.
Considering the societal challenges, LERU welcomes less prescriptive topic descriptions in the calls for proposals in each of these challenges. We hope that there will indeed be enough room for bottom-up research approaches. LERU considers the inclusion of the challenge of ‘Inclusive, innovative and secure societies’ for research in social sciences and humanities to be very important. Furthermore we hope that researchers from these disciplines will also be involved in the other challenges, as has been correctly envisaged by the EC.
In general, LERU is very pleased with the focus on excellence in the H2020 proposals, without any geographical or other preconditions. LERU applauds the increased role of the Structural Funds for capacity building in Europe and hope this will contribute significantly to the building of stairways to excellence.
LERU will now start to investigate all the details of the new H2020proposals and will provide more specific feedback on its contents, rules and regulations very soon.
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Notes for editors
The League of European Research Universities (LERU) is as an association of leading research-intensive universities that share the values of high-quality teaching within an environment of internationally competitive research. Founded in 2002, LERU advocates education through an awareness of the frontiers of human understanding; the creation of new knowledge through basic research, which is the ultimate source of innovation in society; and the promotion of research across a broad front in partnership with industry and society at large.
For questions about the report or about LERU or to arrange an interview with a LERU representative in your country, contact Prof. Kurt Deketelaere, Secretary-General, tel BE +32 16 32 99 72 or +32 499 80 89 99, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Mrs. Laura Keustermans, Policy Officer, tel BE +32 16 32 99 69, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
The LERU universities are:
- Universiteit van Amsterdam
- Universitat de Barcelona
- University of Cambridge
- University of Edinburgh
- Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
- Université de Genève
- Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
- Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki)
- Universiteit Leiden
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
- Imperial College London
- University College London
- Lunds universitet
- Università degli Studi di Milano
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- University of Oxford
- Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6
- Université Paris-Sud 11
- Université de Strasbourg
- Universiteit Utrecht
- Universität Zürich