Activities of Ashley FOX related to 2011/2107(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the Green Paper: From challenges to opportunities: towards a common strategic framework for EU research and innovation funding
Amendments (14)
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses the importance of establishing networks of excellence and of integrating, where appropriate, EU policies and the strategies launched by the Member States, by strengthening the role of regional and local governments;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls for the Common Strategic Framework to proceed to an administrative simplification through the development of a more standardised set of rules covering all participants in EU research and innovation programmes; agrees with the Commission that European standards are an important step towards bringing research results to the market and for the validation of technologies and that they can play this key role only if they keep pace with the development of technologies and ever faster product development cycles;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses the importance of promoting the establishment of public-private partnerships; calls for JTIs to be simplified in order to avoid channelling a large amount of financial resources into just a few projects, and calls for the state aid rules to be simplified by means of mechanisms such as ‘consent by silence’ and block exemptionsreviewed, so that innovation is not hampered by lengthy processes;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls for unleashing the public sector’s purchasing power to spur innovation through public procurement including pre-commercial procurement that can enable public authorities to share the risks and benefits with suppliers, without involving state aid;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Underlines the need for the intellectual property rights to guarantee a balance between exploitation and technology transfer and access to and rapid dissemination of scientific results;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Takes the view that the Commission should allocate part of the research budget to SMEs run by young people and businesswomen, rewarding the establishment of networks or clusters;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Regrets that academic professionals still encounter obstacles to the free movement of workers such as problems with pension portability; stresses the need for developing a system which actively encourages the mobility of researchers and scientists between European universities and academic centres; underlines that this would stimulate sharing knowledge and would be highly beneficial to innovation and to the emergence of a European knowledge- based economy;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8b. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to improve framework conditions for business to innovate, in particular with respect to intellectual property rights and the adoption of the EU patent;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 c (new)
Paragraph 8 c (new)
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 d (new)
Paragraph 8 d (new)
8d. Recommends that the European Institute of Technology should be fully integrated into the Common Strategic Framework, with the objective of building a European centre of excellence for enterprise and industry which can compete with global academic players in nurturing and promoting EU innovation skills and competitiveness while addressing the brain drain question, attracting international talent and investing in the knowledge growth economy;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 e (new)
Paragraph 8 e (new)
8e. Recalls that the 3% of GDP R&D target is composed of a 2 % (private) and 1 % (public expenditure) share; notes that there are still particular shortcomings in the field of private research spending which can only be overcome by adapting the regulatory environment for companies, including SMEs; supports in particular the Commission’s work to develop a new headline indicator based on the service delivery of innovation as this would be more informative than measuring performance against numerical targets;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 f (new)
Paragraph 8 f (new)
8f. Stresses the need to enhance, stimulate and secure the financing of research, development and innovation in the EU; stresses in particular the need for SMEs and micro-enterprises to have access to affordable finance by increasing the scope for participation in different innovative projects; urges the Commission to take appropriate steps to improve the functioning of the EU’s funding programmes by rewarding enterprises that promote innovative projects; regrets in particular the lack of funding for crucial instruments for research, innovation and development that have already been adopted, such as the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan);
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 g (new)
Paragraph 8 g (new)
8g. Stresses the importance of alternative sources of financing for innovative enterprises engaged in research and development, in particular for the financing of projects targeted at bringing the results of R&D to market in collaboration with universities and academic centres; supports in particular the creation of pan-European venture capital instruments, bringing together public and private investment, to create a more effective funding environment for high-growth and innovative SMEs, and encourages the Commission to work with the EIB, EIF and Member State expert bodies to take this work forwards as a priority;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 h (new)
Paragraph 8 h (new)
8h. Welcomes the EU Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme to identify technology-oriented public sector challenges and fund R&D projects to develop new solutions to both old and emerging problems;