Annexes to COM(2013)494 - Public-private partnerships in Horizon 2020: a powerful tool to deliver on innovation and growth in Europe - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2013)494 - Public-private partnerships in Horizon 2020: a powerful tool to deliver on innovation and growth in Europe. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2013)494  |
| date | July 10, 2013 |
Contractual public-private partnerships are being considered in the following areas:
– Factories of the Future;
– Energy-efficient Buildings;
– Green Vehicles;
– Future Internet[14];
– Sustainable Process Industry;
– Robotics;
– Photonics;
– High Performance Computing.
The first four areas would take forward public-private partnerships established under FP7. In all cases, they represent large parts of the European economy and the need for public-private partnerships has been identified in Commission documents, such as the Communication on an update to the Industrial Policy, the Communication on a European strategy for Key Enabling Technologies[15], the Communication on High-Performance Computing[16] or the proposals for Horizon 2020.
For each of these areas, the industry proposals are expected to provide clear roadmaps, developed in open consultation with other interested parties, which describe the vision, research and innovation content and expected impact, including in terms of growth and jobs. They are also expected to clarify the nature and extent of the industry's commitments and the leverage effect of the public-private partnership. They will focus particularly on close to market activities.
In addition, the public-private partnerships should also aim at exploiting synergies with European Structural and Investment Funds, notably in relation to the regional and national smart specialisation strategies.
The Commission will assess the industry proposals, including through the use of external expertise, against the criteria established under the Horizon 2020 Regulation. In the case of a positive assessment, the results of which will be made publicly available, a Memorandum of Understanding will be concluded between the Commission and the private partners, on the basis of a Commission Decision. This will set out:
– The general and specific objectives of the partnership;
– The commitments made by the private partners, which are expected to be substantial and at a comparable level to the foreseen Union contribution, and may include the administrative costs of the public-private partnership as well as industry funded demonstration, training, clustering, awareness-raising and monitoring activities;
– The key performance indicators and the expected results, including the impacts in terms of exploitation in Europe;
– The indicative financial envelope for the Union contribution for the period 2014-2020 (subject to approval by the Budgetary Authority through the annual budgetary procedure);
– A monitoring and review mechanism, using key performance indicators and with a possibility for adjustment. This will also provide the basis for the Commission to terminate a partnership in case the industry partners fall short on their commitments;
– The governance structure, including the mechanism by which the Commission will seek advice from the private partners on the research and innovation activities to be proposed for financial support under Horizon 2020.
For those areas where the industry proposal is evaluated to meet the required criteria, the Commission will aim to conclude the necessary Memorandum of Understanding in time to launch the public-private partnerships activities in the first Horizon 2020 work programme.
5.2. Public-public and other partnerships
The Commission will also make use of other forms of partnering for the implementation of Horizon 2020. The Commission is presenting four legislative proposals to establish public-public partnerships with Member States under Article 185 TFEU for the joint implementation of national research programmes. These proposals cover:
– The second European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership: to contribute to the reduction of the social and economic burden of Poverty Related Diseases;
– The European Metrology Programme for Research and Innovation: to provide appropriate, integrated and fit-for-purpose metrology solutions supporting innovation and industrial competitiveness as well as measurement technologies addressing societal challenges such as energy, environment and health;
– Eurostars 2: to stimulate economic growth and job creation by enhancing the competitiveness of R&D performing SMEs;
– The Active and Assisted Living Research and Development Programme: to improve the quality of life for the elderly and their careers and to increase the sustainability of care systems by enhancing the availability of ICT based products and services for active and healthy ageing.
In addition to the public-private partnerships, Horizon 2020 will also make use of advice coming from other forms of partnership such as the European Innovation Partnerships[17] and the Joint Programming Initiatives[18] as well as from European Technology Platforms. Also under Horizon 2020, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology will establish Knowledge and Innovation Communities[19] bringing together, under structured long-term partnerships, the education, research and business sectors.
The two forthcoming FET Flagships,[20] Graphene and Human Brain Project, aim to create large-scale long-term European partnerships. They complement the public-private partnerships as they are science-driven at the outset, while the industrial participation will build up over the ten-year duration of the Flagships.
Besides JTIs, the SESAR[21] (Single European Sky ATM Research) Joint Undertaking (SJU) was established as another form of public-private partnership on the basis of Article 187 TFEU to coordinate the SESAR project, the technical pillar of the Single European Sky initiative which aims at modernising Air Traffic Management in Europe. Due to its specific policy-oriented activities, SESAR was not set up as a JTI, although it does maintain close links with the Clean Sky JTI. The Commission is proposing to extend the SESAR JU under Horizon 2020. This extension will ensure that the coordination of research and innovation in the field of ATM is continued under Horizon 2020 in full consistency with the Single European Sky (SES) policy objectives.
6. Outlook
Public-private partnerships with a strong industry input and commitment are indispensable elements of achieving the objectives of Horizon 2020 and the Europe 2020 strategy. This Communication has outlined how the approach to public-private partnerships will be strengthened in Horizon 2020, on the basis of increased transparency, clearer objectives, a stronger focus on close to the market activities, stronger industry commitment and major simplification.
The activities of the JTIs, contractual public-private partnerships, public-public partnerships and other related initiatives such as the Joint Programming Initiatives, the EIT KICs or the European Innovation Partnerships will be implemented in a way that maximises synergies and increases overall impact, in particular where they address common objectives. Full use should in this respect be made of the possibilities offered by the fact that all EU level research and innovation funding has been brought together in a single programme, Horizon 2020. Synergies should especially be sought in linking activities across the innovation cycle, from research outcomes to closer to market activities, in order to help boost entrepreneurship and business creation in fields of major relevance to the European economy.
Given their high impact on jobs and growth, the Commission calls upon the European Parliament and the Council to conclude the necessary legislative decisions to launch these partnerships at the start of Horizon 2020. Through the proposed governance arrangements, the Commission will regularly monitor, report, and evaluate the progress of the JTIs and other partnerships.
Experience demonstrates that the establishment of Joint Undertakings requires considerable time and effort and should only be pursued where there is a major strategic research and innovation objective that cannot be met through the normal Horizon 2020 implementation. The Commission will therefore only consider the need for future such initiatives where there is a clear case based on the criteria under Horizon 2020 and a clear strategic policy need. The Commission does, however, consider that the scale of research and innovation effort and the policy need to complete the Single European Railway Area and build EU leadership in rail technologies presents a good case for a potential Joint Undertaking in the railway sector and will work with the industry to develop a proposal.
[1] COM(2010) 2020
[2] COM(2010) 546
[3] COM(2011) 808/809/810/811/812
[4] COM(2012) 582
[5] COM(2012) 341
[6] Interim evaluations of the JTIs and the Commission's response to these are available at http://ec.europa.eu/research/jti/index_en.cfm, as is the report of the JTI Sherpa Group
[7] COM(2011) 572
[8] COM(2012) 60
[9] This amount is composed of contributions from the members of the Joint Undertaking or their constituent entities (at least EUR 400 million) as well as from non-member entities through participation in the activities.
[10] This amount is composed of contributions from the members of the Joint Undertaking or their constituent entities (at least EUR 1700 million from private members) as well as from non-member entities through participation in the activities.
[11] As requested by the JTI Sherpa Report: http://ec.europa.eu/research/jti/pdf/jti-sherpas-report-2010_en.pdf
[12] COM(2008) 800
[13] In addition, for the Future Internet initiative EUR 300 million has been invested by the Union, of which about 50% has gone to industry.
[14] Follow-up to the ongoing Future Internet PPP focused on wired and wireless 5G network infrastructures
[15] COM(2012) 341
[16] COM(2012) 45
[17] http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/index_en.cfm?pg=eip
[18] http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/joint-programming_en.html
[19] http://eit.europa.eu/kics/
[20] http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/fet-flagships
[21] http://www.sesarju.eu/