Projects and insights

When the European Commission prepared for Horizon Europe, a new approach was foreseen to be introduced: target-oriented or challenge-based research. This approach eventually became the EU missions. The question I needed to answer for a short study for the Commission is how to select proposals for this type of research and innovation? Are the established proposal selection methods and criteria used in the Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation suitable for this? How do other R&I funding agencies around the world, with a mission approach tackle this? A comparative study was conducted of selection procedures and criteria at agencies such as DARPA, NIH, NSF and ARPA-E (US), Vinnova (SE), NWO (NL), Innovation Fund Denmark, the Industry Challenge Fund (UK), the Environmental Protection Agency Ireland, as well as upcoming mission programmes such as Brain Cancer Mission Australia. The main insights of the comparative study were innovative approaches such as project stage-gating with more emphasis on uptake in society in the last phases, reflected in shifting selection criteria for every stage. Demanding a greater effort by applicants to make their contribution to impact pathways more explicit in proposals is another method used by multiple agencies. An active portfolio management and extensive strategic intelligence (a sophisticated ‘front-end strategic approach’) used by agencies such as DARPA, supported the selection of projects that aimed at specific solutions and gaps in the knowledge base. This asks for a very top-down approach, which is less conducive with the more bottom-up approach in EU research funding. The study recommended to integrate some of these innovative approaches, however adapted to the EU legal and policy context.

This study conducted together with Ruslan Stevanov of ARC Fund on behalf of the EU Joint Research Centre (JRC), assessed how Bulgaria could harness digitalisation to strengthen the national ICT and mechatronics sectors. After extensive stakeholder consultations and documentation analysis, the Bulgarian performance in R&I, digitalisation and key business sectors was mapped and analysed. A suite of recommendations was made to tackle the many challenges and bottlenecks in the Bulgarian innovation ecosystem. A combined approach seemed necessary upgrading education and training, business sector regulation, innovation of the public sector and enhancement of the governance of R&I system. The report was presented to the Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria by the authors and the JRC.

Five countries (Bulgaria, Finland, Malta, Romania and the Slovak Republic) took part in a Mutual Learning Exercise to learn about the Whole-of-Government Approach (WGA) in research and innovation policy. This entails the close cooperation and coordination between different government institutions to tackle complex policy issues, and in addition the active involvement of stakeholders such as researchers, business and citizens. The exercise gave the participating policy makers the opportunity to learn from various cases of policy practice, that aimed at better coordinated governance. Some cases were the industry road-mapping initiatives to foster green transition in Finland, novel methods for broad stakeholder engagement preparing the national R&I strategy in the Slovak Republic, the government wide governance structures dedicated to R&I mission policy, set up in Austria and the Romanian actions to launch a high-level National Council for Science, Technology and Innovation. This exercise was initiated by the EU Policy Support Facility managed by DG RTD. My role was to act as rapporteur for the overall exercise. Various reports of this exercise can be found at:

For the interim evaluation study on Horizon Europe’s contribution to the Digital and Industrial Transition, a consortium led by the Technopolis Group reviewed the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, coherence and EU added value of a substantial pillar of the European multiannual R&I programme. The study was commissioned by DG Research and Innovation and finalised in 2024. Focus was on ‘Cluster 4: Digital, Industry and Space’, including the different Partnerships that are aligned to this cluster in Horizon Europe, representing an EU contribution of €8,77 billion. The study was conducted using a broad mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies and extensive stakeholder consultation. The conclusions of the review were positive regarding the activities’ contributions to competitiveness, technological competence building and integrating European value chains. Suggestions for improvements were also made, for instance to create stronger synergy between the industry Partnerships with the mainstream programme and to strengthen the identification of emerging topics. My role in this study was as senior expert, supporting the analysis and reporting for this evaluation.