The interim evaluation of this and also position papers made by the individual Member States, such as the Hungarian one presented by the NRDI Office, served as basis of the draft that now communicates main headlines.        

For several months, European Commission experts have been working hard on drafting a plan for the research and innovation programme of the next seven-year programming period to start in 2021. The proposed FP9 package they are putting now on the table foresees a budget of more than EUR 100 billion and will soon be discussed in details by the Member States and the European Parliament, to decide on its final budget, frames and content.

As the policy-making institution being responsible for the coordination of the European RDI framework programmes in Hungary, late last year the NRDI Office summarised the overall experience of the Hungarian participation in the Horizon 2020 programme and identified future directions considered as key priorities by Hungary. The Hungarian position was presented in Brussels by József Pálinkás who pointed out: “With our current system of publicly financed RDI calls Hungary is also preparing for the period after 2020. It is important that our funding decisions adopted nowadays should contribute to strengthen the international competitiveness of Hungarian applicants and facilitate international research and innovation cooperation so that our researchers, developers and innovative businesses can successfully participate in the European and global competition after 2020.” So far, Hungarian institutions and businesses have been awarded funding of more than EUR 195 million (over HUF 60 billion) in the Horizon 2020 framework programme. The President of the NRDI Office added: it is necessary to create a system of rules that promote the collective and coordinated use of funds under the framework programme and the Structural Funds.

The European researchers’ community, economy stakeholders and policy-makers are equally eager to know details of actual objectives to boost European R&D and innovation in response of global challenges, and see what sort of tools and resources will be offered by the coming framework programme to meet the targets. The Commission made a summary of six points what they consider “key improvements”, in which some of the Hungarian suggestions are also reflected:

• Simpler and fewer partnerships – to rationalise the nearly 100 industry and Member State co-financed competitions in H2020, sweeping away some of the programme’s complicated rules but, at the same time, defining clear “exit” targets to be met by the given partnership.
  
• Bridging the R&D divide between Eastern and Western Europe – increased budget for competitions currently running in H2020 to boost EU13 new member states’ involvement (Widening actions: Twinning, Teaming, ERA-Chairs) to increase the participation of countries struggling with limited resources.
  
• Growing bigger, more competitive companies – fostering that scientific discoveries turn into new products, services and processes and innovative enterprises grow faster and be globally competitive, through combining grants with loans or equity.
  
• More open science – publications on scientific research supported by EU funding should meet the requirement of open access as the general rule.
  
• Greater foreign access – easing the participation of countries with strong RDI capacities outside the EU to enhance the competitiveness of European parties; this also applies for UK institutions after Brexit.
  
• More citizen science – objectives and expenses of R&D missions must be readily understandable and captivating to the broad public in societies.