Date
The report results from a PSF Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) where 12 countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, Spain and Turkey) were actively involved and identified lessons learnt and strategies to boost national innovation systems and R&I performance.
Horizon 2020 (H2020), the current FP, is a source of competitive funding that promotes ‘excellence’ and ‘collaboration’ in research, while ESIF leans towards funding ‘cohesion’ by helping countries and regions upgrade their R&I capabilities. The ‘Widening participation and strengthening synergies’ final report identifies key targeted national measures to help Member States participate more and better in the FPs, and build synergies between the two funding instruments so they “don’t miss out” on opportunities to improve R&I performance. Widening participation, the report says, is now a “policy imperative”.