Background
Horizon Europe aims to simplify the landscape of the European Partnerships and to introduce a more strategic, coherent and impact-driven approach with a goal of fewer partnerships with more impact. In practice this means that there will be only three types of partnerships: co-funded, co-programmed, and institutional.
Currently, 49 partnerships are under development. Key principles for the partnerships from the European Commission’s side is that they should support the overarching policy objectives at the EU level such as the Green Deal, digitalisation etc., have openness and impact at the centre, coordinate between one another, and ensure synergies between different funding programmes.
All partnerships will have to fulfil similar objectives that include strategic orientation, common conditions of directionality through Strategic Research and Innovation Agendas (SRIAs) and ensure long term commitment and resources to the partnerships.
For more information on each candidate partnership, the ERA-LEARN website provides a good overview. More information on ERRIN's involvement including links to the SRIAs of a selection of the partnerships is also available below, this information will be updated continuously.
ERRIN and European Partnerships
KEY POLICY MESSAGES
ERRIN advocates for a greater involvement of local and regional stakeholders in the European Partnerships and their governance structures. This is crucial for creating synergies with regional programmes, ensuring better connection to societal needs and challenges, and increasing the impact of the partnerships.
A new governance model is needed
Greater involvement of regional and local authorities will lead to better coherence between research and innovation agendas on regional, national, and European level, as well as between the public and private sector. Regional and local authorities should be invited to take part and have a clear role in defining the partnership priorities, in designing the calls for proposals, and in influencing other activities carried out in the framework of the partnerships. Today, priorities of the European Partnerships are often far from the concerns experienced by local and regional actors that are addressing the issues on the ground. In addition, some of the candidate partnerships are looking at one key enabling technology without enough links to a concrete application field.
Involving regional and local authorities further in the governance of the European Partnerships will also allow to draw on their capacity to mobilise various actors in the innovation ecosystem including SMEs, cluster organisations etc. and thus integrate projects into the broader European innovation ecosystem. Similarly, they are strategically placed to make the link with the needs of the regions, cities, and the citizens, ensuring that relevant innovative solutions are developed, and provide opportunities for testing and demonstration.
Better links to interregional partnerships for Smart Specialisation
Coordination between research and innovation agendas on a local, regional, national, and European level, as well as between the public and private sector, is needed to further increase the impact of investments and efficient use of Horizon Europe funds. Creating concrete synergies, collaboration, and coordination, between European Partnerships and S3 Partnerships based on regional innovation strategies should therefore be encouraged.
Driving urban transitions to a sustainable future - a partnership of particular interest to ERRIN
The Partnership Driving urban transitions to a sustainable future (DUT) is the proposal for an urban partnership under Horizon Europe, which is currently under development led by JPI Urban Europe.
ERRIN has actively participated in shaping this new partnership and has also been invited to play a role in it. The DUT Partnership is the first European Partnership that takes an integrated approach on local challenges and therefore is really place-based. In light of this, ERRIN sees this partnership as an important tool for European regions to contribute to the green transition and EU’s climate objectives, through the involvement of the entire local and regional innovation ecosystem.
In order to tackle pressing societal challenges, a transformation of our urban systems is required. Achieving urban sustainability is, however, not only a matter of individual sectoral solutions, but equally a matter of how these solutions integrate into the urban system and how they affect each other. Urban areas are therefore places where all these issues are interrelated, and can be addressed in an effective way, making use of innovation and experimentation.
Other European Partnerships followed in more detail by ERRIN and its working groups
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The Built4People partnership will provide a cross-cutting structure, bringing together public and private sectors, to create research and innovation pathways based on a holistic view of the built environment for sustainability and better living. The preparation of this partnership started in 2019 and plenary stakeholder meeting was organised in December 2019. More information from the stakeholder meeting can be found here.
ERRIN is calling for members from different working groups to form a task force aimed at providing input on the Built4People R&I Partnership under Horizon Europe. Read more here.
The Circular Bio-based Europe JU (CBE) will be the successor of BBI JU under Horizon Europe. The Single Basic Act, which is the legal act establishing all partnerships, is expected to be adopted in autumn and to enter into force before the end of 2021.
The new partnership should stay aligned with the priorities of its predecessor, although with a bigger focus on sustainability and circularity. Some of the main tasks of the CBE have also been updated or are completely new, such as the wider participation of targeted actors (including regions) and the enhanced focus and monitoring of the environmental performance, including biodiversity. Another new task is the enhanced feedback to policy, which is enabled through a broader, more explicit communication mandate. For the governance of the partnership, the CBE wishes to reinforce the link to regions and create synergies with other funding sources. It has therefore been suggested to establish a third advisory body – a so called Deployment Group.
The CBE would have a multiannual work programme, and it is expected that the calls could open either in January 2022 – with the evaluation taking place before summer, or in April 2022 - with the evaluation taking place in autumn. For the drafting of the calls, the BIC will make a first round of proposals for priorities and topics based on the SIRA for multiple years. Thereafter, BIC will draft the calls together with the European Commission which then are discussed with the advisory boards.
The role of regions will within the frame of the CBE mostly focus on finding funding synergies, e.g. with structural funds and R&I funding, and on promoting the programme towards regional actors. To help achieve this objective, a platform to connect regions with bio-based industries was launched early last year. The platform remains open to any interested region, and several ideas are on the table to make it more dynamic in the future, e.g. networking events between regions and industries.
Here you can find a presentation with more information on the current suggested proposal for the CBE JU, as well as a presentation on the BIC bioeconomy platform. More information on the CBE is expected to be available in early autumn 2021.
The drafting of the Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility partnership started at the beginning of 2020 following a meeting with the CCAM Platform. The process is coordinated by ERTRAC.
Timeline
Mid-March: stakeholder consultation on the draft proposal
12 April: the proposal was delivered to the European Commission
A large number of actors need to be involved in the development, large-scale testing and validation of CCAM solutions, addressing technical and non-technical challenges. Therefore, a CCAM stakeholder community is being developed.
The Health and Care Systems partnership build on the following composing initiatives: AAL Programme, JPI MYBL, EIPonAHA (represented by WE4AHA H2020 CSA), and To-Reach H2020 CSA. The drafting panel consists of five Member States: FR, NL, AT, ES, and BE/Flanders.
The partnership will be a co-funded public-public partnership. The building blocks of the partnership are: policy foresight, research, implementation, support measures, and management. The regional dimension is relevant and important for health and care systems in Europe, and for this partnership. Regional representatives are foreseen on the governing board.
The vision and ambition
The partnership aims to:
Lay the ground to provide high-quality, fairly accessible, health promoting and resilient health and care services at affordable prices to all European citizens that is sustainable for the public finances
High-quality health, care, and social support to all European citizens
Financially sustainable public health, care and social support services
Economic viability and growth
Links and/or collaboration opportunities
The European Partnership Innovative Health Initiative (IHI), the European Institute of Technology EIT-Health and other proposed health partnership candidates: “Personalised medicine”, “Rare diseases”, “One Health”, “Translational Health Research”.
Synergies with other EU and Horizon Europe initiatives: EIC, other clusters and partnerships like the mission area on cancer.
The Towards zero-emission road transport partnership will pave the way to achieve the vision described in the ERTRAC SRA: 100 % renewable energy for transport, emission-free urban areas, and negligible emissions in rural areas.
It will focus on the required research and innovation for: i) the development of next generation energy-efficient and affordable near-zero emission road vehicles technologies ii) battery electric vehicles iii) plug-in hybrid electric vehicles using iv) renewable fuels for long-distance v) innovative mobility solutions vi) cost-effective, user friendly recharging infrastructures (from slow to fast/ultra-fast)
The work to develop the partnership is organised around working groups covering the funded areas identified in the partnership proposal.
The working group on innovative concepts and services for the zero emission mobility of people and goods is looking for experts.
A first meeting of this working group will be organised on 27 May, 10.00-12.00.
As a guideline, participation is limited to one expert per organisation per working group. This is only an indication of course, as we value the expertise the different participants can bring into the discussions.
To join, please send your expression of interest to Ms Lucie Beaumel at EGVIA before 20 May, 12.00.
Please note that the next stakeholders meeting for the 2Zero SRIA preparation (involving all stakeholders) is scheduled on 12 June. You can already save the date in your calendars.
Presentation of the partnership
The strategic objective of the Zero-emission waterborne transport partnership is to demonstrate zero-emission solutions by 2030 which can be implemented, so to achieve zero-emission ambitions by 2050.
Expected impact
Demonstrate of deployable zero-emission solutions suitable for all main ship types and services by 2030.
Maintain and reinforce Europe’s global leadership in green shipping technologies.
Contribute to clean and a carbon neutral future.
Timeline
May/June 2020: public consultation of Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA)
End of July 2020: final SRIA
2021: launch of the partnership
Why a European Partnership for Health Innovation?
Healthcare in Europe is at a crossroads. It faces increasing challenges on a number of fronts; at the same time, technological and scientific advances offer new opportunities to solve these challenges. Bridging the gap to address today's health and translational challenges will require a multi-sector Public-Private Partnership.
More information, including the draft Strategic Research Agenda and an overview presentation, can be found here.
Water4All is a candidate partnership focussed on water security for the planet. The initiative’s main objectives are to boost systemic transformations across the water-research innovation pipeline and to foster matchmaking between problem owners and solution providers. Water4All will be a co-funded partnership, a new instrument launched in Horizon Europe. Through this instrument Member States design a common programme to be implemented under their responsibility, with funding and resources co-funded by the European Union.
ERRIN’s Director Pirita Lindholm sits on the Stakeholder Advisory Board of the Water Joint Programming Initiative (JPI), one of the key networks involved in the development of the Water4All partnership. Water JPI consists of 23 full members plus a management board, governing board and two advisory boards, motivated by the goal of sustainable water systems for a sustainable economy in Europe and beyond. Another key partner in the Water4All proposal is ERRIN member WaterCampus Leeuwarden, who work actively in education, research and innovation within the thematic scope of water.
In a similar vein, the Smart Specialisation Partnership - Water Smart Territories – tackles similar objectives to the Water4All partnerships and there may therefore be some common interests, also in terms of investment priorities.
Learn more via these resources:
Second draft of the Water4All Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda
