Towards a vibrant European Research Area

The communication on the European Research Area (ERA) of September 2014 is the second progress report on the ERA. It highlights good progress by the ERA partnership - EU countries, research organisations and the European Commission - in establishing the single market for research. It also notes the challenges that lie ahead before the ERA can be completed.

ACT

Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: European Research Area -- Progress report 2014 (COM(2014) 575 final of 15.9.2014).

SUMMARY

The communication on the European Research Area (ERA) of September 2014 is the second progress report on the ERA. It highlights good progress by the ERA partnership - EU countries, research organisations and the European Commission - in establishing the single market for research. It also notes the challenges that lie ahead before the ERA can be completed.

WHAT DOES THE COMMUNICATION DO?

Its main conclusion is that the conditions for achieving the ERA, where researchers and scientific knowledge can circulate freely, are in place at the European level. However, the completion of the ERA is a gradual process, so reforms must now be made mainly at country level to make the ERA work.

The report confirms that the following conditions for completing the ERA, announced in the 2012 ERA communication, are now firmly established.

• EU countries are increasingly adopting measures to support the ERA, and reflecting them in their national reform programmes.
• The EU has included the ERA in the European semester (annual economic policy coordination). It also provides substantial funding for ERA measures, e.g. promoting open recruitment, open access to publications and data as well as gender equality through Horizon 2020.
• Research organisations such as research funders and research-performing institutions have shown strong support for the ERA agenda.
• An ERA monitoring mechanism has been set up and is delivering increasingly strong data to evaluate performance at national and institutional level.

Research weaknesses to address

• Although nearly all EU countries have adopted national research strategies, there are still big differences in how they allocate research funding. There is also a lack of agreed standards across Europe for doing international peer reviews.
• More training for EU doctoral candidates is needed, so they will have the right skills to work outside academia.
• While more EU countries practice open recruitment practices for positions in public research institutions, the use of open recruitment practices is uneven amongst countries, research institutes and grades.
• More than half of EU countries have initiatives supporting gender equality in research, but the pace of real change is too slow.
• EU countries are getting better at ensuring open access to research results (publications and data) and developing national knowledge transfer strategies, but they must do more in both these areas.

The progress report notes that EU countries must develop an ERA roadmap by mid-2015. This should result in initiatives that target countries’ own specific needs.

Future challenges

To maximise the potential of Europe’s open research systems and to foster innovation, the ERA needs to embrace new policy priorities and research developments and deliver sustainable solutions to challenges facing society. Growing demand for research integrity and accountability, as well as new modes of conducting and sharing research (i.e. open science), mean that new stakeholders will be central to its success.

last update 13.05.2015