The European Commission is set to publish a communication on the future of the European Research Area (ERA) in 2020. The Communication aims to broaden ERA by strengthening its innovation dimension as well as integrating aspects of skills and education. At the same time the objective is to reinforce the role of European Commission to improve priority setting, monitoring, and assessment of the ERA - and to further coordinate national R&I agendas to ensure coherence and working towards shared objectives.

ERRIN has developed a set of concrete recommendations to the European Research Area highlighting the role of regional innovation ecosystems in achieving more efficient and impactful ERA.

The ERA should:

• Actively work towards creating a more coherent R&I system, and to involve regional actors in its governance
• Support ecosystem building and broad engagement of stakeholders
• Broaden its focus on innovation and further integrate education and skills to build the knowledge base for the future
• Create a European policy forum for regional and local innovation ecosystems by strengthening existing initiatives such as the Week of Innovative Regions in Europe (WIRE)

Read the reccomendations in the attached document.

Background

ERRIN has been engaged in the ERA Stakeholder Platform since 2015 and provided input to the European Research Area and Innovation Committee (ERAC) ad-hoc working group on the future of the ERA. The ERAC ad-hoc group worked on a new narrative as well as possible future objectives and priorities for ERA. Their opinion was adopted in December 2019.