2 Amendments of Adam GIEREK related to 2011/0402(CNS)

Herbert REUL, Norbert GLANTE, Maria da Graça CARVALHO, Lena KOLARSKA-BOBIŃSKA, Ioan ENCIU, Adam GIEREK, Silvia-Adriana ȚICĂU

Proposal for a decision
Annex 1 – section 1 – point 4 a (new)

4 a. Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation In order to help close the research and innovation divide in Europe, complementarity and close synergies will be developed with the Structural Funds both upstream (capacity-building in the Member States to better prepare their participation in Horizon 2020) and downstream (exploit and diffuse research and innovation results stemming from Horizon 2020). Where possible, interoperability between the two instruments will be promoted. Cumulative or combined funding will be encouraged. In this context, measures will aim at fully exploiting the potential of Europe's talent pool and thereby optimising the economic and social impact of research and innovation and will be distinct yet complementary with regard to policies and actions of the Cohesion policy Funds. These measures include: (a) Linking emerging institutions, centres of excellence and innovative regions in less developed Member States to leading international counterparts elsewhere in Europe. This will involve twinning of staff exchanges, expert advice and assistance and the development of joint strategies for the development of centres of excellence. This may be supported by the Cohesion policy funds in less developed regions. Building links with innovative clusters and recognising excellence in less developed regions, including through peer reviews and awarding labels of excellence to those institutions that meet international standards, will be considered. (b) Launching a competition for the foundation of internationally competitive research centres in cohesion regions: the candidates for the competition should be teams each comprising an innovative but still less developed region and an internationally recognised centre of excellence elsewhere in Europe. The scientific concepts underlying the newly founded research institutes should be assessed on the principle of excellence; the regions should be required to come up with a viable overall approach for an infrastructure and overall environment amenable to research and innovation, something to be built up with the help of their structural funds; this competition should provide a powerful complement to the efforts of the economically weaker regions to develop a long term smart specialisation strategy. (c) Establishing 'ERA Chairs' to attract outstanding academics to institutions with a clear potential for research excellence, in order to help these institutions fully unlock this potential and thereby create a level playing field for research and innovation in the European Research Area. This will include institutional support for creating a competitive research environment and the framework conditions necessary for attracting, retaining and developing top research talent within these institutions. (d) Conferring a "seal of excellence" on positively evaluated ERC, Marie Sklodowska-Curie or collaborative project proposals that have not been able to achieve funding because of budgetary limitations. National and regional funds might thus be encouraged to contribute to the funding of those projects that meet the criteria of excellence but cannot be funded due to lack of European funds. (e) Conferring a "seal of excellence" to completed projects in order to facilitate funding of the follow up (e.g. pilot scale, demonstration projects or valorisation of research results) by national or regional sources. (f) Attribution of ERC "Return Grants" to researchers currently working outside of Europe and who wish to work in Europe or to researchers already working in Europe who wish to move to a less developed region. (g) Support complementary agreements signed among organisations beneficiaries of the collaborative research projects with other entities and organisations established mainly in countries others than those directly involved in the project with the specific objective of facilitating training opportunities (namely doctoral and post-doctoral positions) (h) Strengthening successful networks aiming at establishing high quality institutional networking in research and innovation. Particular attention will be paid to COST in order to promote activities to identify and connect "pockets of excellence" (high-quality scientific communities and early career investigators) throughout Europe. (i) Developing specific training mechanisms on how to participate in Horizon 2020, taking full advantage of existing networks such as the National Contact Points. (j) Making available doctoral and post- doctoral fellowships, as well as advanced training fellowships for engineers for accessing all international research infrastructures in Europe, including those managed by international scientific organisations. (k) Supporting the development and monitoring of smart specialisation strategies. A policy support facility will be developed and policy learning at regional level will be facilitated through international evaluation by peers and best practice sharing. (l) Setting up an online marketplace where intellectual property can be advertised in order to bring together the owners and users of IPR.

2012/07/04
Committee: ITRE

Adam GIEREK

Proposal for a decision
Annex 1 – section 3 – point 1 – point 1.16 – paragraph 1

Support provided will cover the full spectrum of activities from knowledge and technology transfer to large scale demonstration actions, leading to scalable solutions for Europe and beyond. In order to overcome the challenges facing the EU's ageing societies, an appropriate, coordinated and strategic analysis of health policy objectives is vital. Such coordination can solve problems caused by the fragmentation and lack of consistency in the policies of Member States and enhance the use of scientific, personal and infrastructural potential throughout the biomedical research community and among those using its end products in medical treatments. In order for innovative health research to be successful, it is vital that all medical facilities have a long-term commitment to constantly improving research and the training of creative groups of young scientists through projects under the Marie Curie Actions programme. This development-focused strategy should support research processes leading towards a healthier and more efficient Europe through the involvement of European society in biomedical research and through the new opportunities and challenges that will be offered by the innovative end products of biomedical research. The strategic actions under Horizon 2020 can ensure that specialists have an input in future health policies from their very inception, speed up the introduction of innovations and increase the competitiveness of medical procedures used; they can also support cross-border cooperation between a greater number of scientists and specialists in various areas of medicine with a view to creating real savings for national health systems through scientific advances. Changes to the training of specialist doctors that restrict the monopoly currently held by doctors’ professional associations in Member States should be carried out on the basis of a uniform, EU-wide system, and should be implemented in such a way as to ensure that healthcare training and research in Europe are based on the best possible procedures in use in medical research facilities that meet uniform training criteria. A high-level EU advisory board on health should carry out the strategic scientific coordination of healthcare research throughout the Horizon 2020 programme and support horizontal medical research carried out simultaneously in different research centres in the Member States. The aim of such strategic coordination would be to contribute to identifying vital medical research and bringing future programmes under the umbrella of local Centres of Excellence that are run to the highest standards of excellence, which should ensure that specialists from various fields of medicine have a scientific input into this competitive policy area from its very inception and guarantee the cost-effectiveness of national healthcare systems. Furthermore, the aim of strategic scientific coordination will be to encourage other areas of scientific and technological research to play a role in innovative strategies created by modern biomedical research. By establishing Horizon 2020 internal strategic coordination in the area of health research issues, based upon top-level scientific advice, the EU advisory board will also provide the instruments needed for the intensive promotion of synergies and economies of scale in the area of healthcare. It will aim to achieve voluntary convergence between national healthcare policy funding agencies and the Commission on specific objectives, whenever appropriate, and to achieve strategic partnership at EU level between industry, national agencies and the Commission; furthermore, strategic convergence involving regulatory bodies and national health authorities will be pursued at programme level. The aim of such a systematic approach to research at all levels should be to ensure that specialist medical procedures are more widely available through the development of cheaper methods.

2012/07/05
Committee: ITRE

2 Amendments of Adam GIEREK related to 2011/0402(CNS)

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