The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities

🎄🐧 Introducing 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝘆, our curious and adventurous penguin, embarking on a remarkable journey across Europe this holiday season! 🐧🎄 💫 In just 16 days, Researchy will explore the most exciting 𝗘𝗨-𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 from the 𝟮𝟮 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 of The Guild. 🌐 Each stop on the 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗽 will uncover a university’s unique contributions to science and innovation, inspiring us to embrace the spirit of curiosity and learning. 🐧 𝘑𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 22 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩, 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 16 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴. Follow its journey every day! #ResearchJourney #Innovation #EUResearch #ResearchMatters 🇦🇹 Universität Wien 🇧🇪 Universiteit Gent, Université catholique de Louvain 🇩🇰 Aarhus University 🇪🇪 University of Tartu 🇫🇷 Université Paris Cité, Université PSL 🇩🇪 Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, University of Tuebingen 🇮🇹 Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna 🇳🇱 Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Radboud University 🇳🇴 Universitetet i Oslo (UiO) 🇵🇱 Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie 🇷🇴 Universitatea „Babeș-Bolyai” din Cluj-Napoca 🇸🇮 University of Ljubljana 🇪🇸 Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona 🇸🇪 Uppsala University 🇨🇭 Universität Bern 🇬🇧 University of Glasgow, King's College London, University of Warwick

This morning, the EU ministers of research adopted a number of conclusions prepared under the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU. The ministers discussed the recommendations of Mario Draghi to boost Europe's competitiveness and highlighted that it is especially crucial to: 💶 Increase investment in R&D. However, while many called for higher national public and private investments, fewer explicitly called for increasing the budget of the framework programme. 🌟 Foster research excellence. Ahead of the Danish presidency in the second half of 2025, it is very positive to see Denmark leading a group of countries re-affirming how critical the autonomy of the European Research Council (ERC) is. 🧫 Reduce fragmentation and accelerate the development of the European Research Area. However, like in the conclusions on ERA and competitiveness, it is surprising not to hear much about the European Commission's proposal for an ERA act. 🔗 Support collaborative research. Many ministers criticised Mario Draghi's report for overlooking this dimension of research. We wish this very valid point would have featured prominently in the conclusions. [Please see clarifications in the comments ⬇️] There was a strong consensus on the need to reduce the innovation gap between Europe and its main competitors. However, there was much more a debate about the relevance of using EU funding to also reduce the innovation divide within Europe. For some, the innovation divide must be addressed as part of an EU policy geared towards competitiveness. For others, it is a national responsibility to increase investment and strengthen research systems. Many discussions on the widening instruments are ahead of us!

'The new Commission is ready': Now we need urgent clarifications on FP10! It's fantastic news that the new Commission is ready to start. But now we need clear answers on how the Commission plans to build on the World's largest and most successful funding programme, Horizon Europe. What is planned for its successor, FP10? We need: 👉 an integral FP10 with aligned instruments across the entire research pipeline 👉 to build on success, notably a strengthened #ERC and #EIC - in financial terms, with the autonomy of their Councils assured 👉 assurance that FP10 will be devoted to frontier science, ensuring that Europe's populations are welcoming and using it in their daily lives 👉 clarity about how military and civilian R&D spending would be aligned. It's been great to see total alignment on these urgent questions with Kurt Deketelaere, with whom I've developed these reflections in Times Higher Education. And it cannot be obvious only to us: "FP10 cannot work without those for whom it is intended – those at the front line of research." Read our opinion piece here 👉 https://bit.ly/417tF0i Anton Muscatelli Rachel Sandison OBE (FCIM) Jan Woepking Udice - French Research Universities Stephanie Smith Manuel Aleixo Sergej Možina Elisabeth Smits (former Grabenweger) Sabine Simmross Martin Smith Laurin Reding Sarah Anja Bühler Virginia Richter Anders Hagfeldt Stéphane Séjourné Henna Virkkunen Ursula von der Leyen Rosalinde van der Vlies Maria Cristina Russo Luc Sels Erik Renström Manuel Heitor Manuel Heitor Françoise Smets Svein Stølen Hanna Snellman Linda Doyle Doris Alexander Dan Banik Tor Grande Margareth Hagen Coco Norén #universities #FP10 #research #innovation #competitiveness European Research Council (ERC) European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) Conny Aerts Anders Overgaard Bjarklev Annelien Bredenoord Dr. Georg Schütte Sylvia Schwaag Serger

📩 Read our autumn newsletter 🔗 https://lnkd.in/erYrMyhd This edition features our recent key activities: 🔎 New College of Commissioners: read up on The Guild's vision for the newly appointed College of Commissioners including reflections from Head of Higher Education Policy Ivana Didak, Head of R&I Policy Julien Chicot and Secretary-General Jan Palmowski 🤝 Together with key research and innovation organisations, we released a call for the recognition of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (Marie Curie Alumni Association) and ask for an increase in budget to unlock its full potential 🌍 More than 250 academics and researchers from all over the world gathered at Stellenbosch University for the inaugural Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence Conference. Click here for more information ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dwh3b9He 🌐 Read out latest paper on the use of #ArtificialIntelligence in research where we provide recommendations to universities, national funders and the European Union on we can strengthen European research on #AI and ensure that AI can boost research across disciplines 🧐 Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/d4PeK9P

💫 Join the discussion on Ethics and Academic Freedom! 💫 📢 Next week on December 2nd, Secretary-General Jan Palmowski will be a speaker at the Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna event focused on addressing the ethical challenges and risks in today’s rapidly changing research environment. His roundtable discussion will provide insights into the institutional perspective concerning academic freedom. The session will be moderated by Alberto Credi. Other panellists include Fulvio Esposito, Maura Hiney, Slaven Misljencevic and Alessandra Celletti. 🤝 Members of The Guild’s task forces and working groups are also participating in the roundtable discussions: Liviu Matei, Linda Wedlin, Roberta Calegari, Federico Casolari, Elisabetta Poluzzi and Rebecca Montanari. This event will explore: ✨ The ethical concerns and risks arising from these new challenges ✨ How academic freedom fosters excellence in science and independent thinking ✨ The actions institutions and researchers should take to turn challenges into opportunities ✨ How to strike the right balance between freedom and responsibility in the research ecosystem 📅 Date: December 2, 2024 🕒 Time: 1:30 pm – 6:30 pm CET 📍 Location: Aula Giorgio Prodi (also online) 🔗 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 👉 https://lnkd.in/dAAk2jb6 #EthicsAndAcademicFreedom #ResearchIntegrity #AIinResearch #ResponsibleResearch #AcademicFreedom #ResearchExcellence

✨ The new College of Commissioners was officially confirmed in the European Parliament today! Congratulations on your appointment! We look forward to working together to further #research, #innovation and #education in Europe 👏 • Roxana Minzatu - Executive Vice-President-designate for Quality Jobs and Social Rights, Education, Skills and Preparedness • Ekaterina Zaharieva - Commissioner-designate for Startups, Research and Innovation • Henna Virkkunen - Executive Vice-President-designate for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy • Jozef Sikela - Commissioner-designate for International Partnerships • Oliver Várhelyi - Commissioner-designate for Health and Animal Welfare • Piotr Serafin - Commissioner-designate for Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration,  • Stéphane Séjourné - Executive Vice-President-designate for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy • Wopke Hoekstra - Commissioner-designate for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth 🧐 Read our response to the Commission letters here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ev_JhkDD #ResearchMatters Research Matters Campaign

🚀 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗨 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗮𝗻 #𝗔𝗜 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵? 🚀 The Guild's position paper "𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙐𝙨𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝: 𝙐𝙣𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡" provides strategic recommendations to help achieve Europe's quest towards creating a human-centric, trustworthy and innovative R&I landscape in academia. 🦾 Strengthen 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 and 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 research on AI 👩🏿💻 Develop 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 for using AI in research and foster talent among students and researchers 💻 Optimise 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 and data availability to increase access to sustainable computing resources 🧐 Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/epF3d4B9 Find case studies on 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗜 and stand-alone 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘀 from our members below ⤵️ ⚫ Data science lab (Sigve Haug, Tobias Hodel) - University of Bern 🔗 https://www.dsl.unibe.ch/ ⚫ Alma Human Centered AI (MIchela Milano, Rossella Rettaroli, Roberta Calegari) - Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eba7MZcX ⚫ Centre for data science & AI (Anahid Basiri, Iadh Ounis) - University of Glasgow 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eaBtS-kY ⚫ PRAIRIE Institute (Thomas Walter, Isabelle Ryl) - PSL Research University Université Paris Cité 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gKr8KVS ⚫ Center for Studies in Artificial and Natural Intelligence (Vladimir Estivill-Castro, PhD) - Universitat Pompeu Fabra 🔗 https://lnkd.in/edTzxqvw ⚫ AI4Research (Thomas Schön) - Uppsala University 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e5XePeMZ ⚫ Centre for Applications of Mathematical & Computing Sciences (Tobias Preis) - University of Warwick 🔗 https://lnkd.in/esKUsp8b ⚫ Pioneer Centre for AI (Serge Belongie) - Aarhus University 🔗 https://www.aicentre.dk/ ⚫ Jagiellonian Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Lab (Michal Wierzchon) - Jagiellonian University 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e8aceNfu ⚫ Estonian Centre of Excellence in AI (Jaak Vilo, Meelis Kull) - University of Tartu 🔗 https://exai.ee/ ⚫ Cluster of Excellence – Machine Learning for Science (Jakob Macke) - University of Tuebingen 🔗 https://lnkd.in/euX7ABma #AIinResearch #ResponsibleAI #Innovation #Research #EU

Responding to Europe's 'wake-up call' through a strong FP10 An important draft report of the European Parliament ITRE Committee (which is responsible for research) presents key proposals for how we can respond most effectively to Europe's challenges - its declining global competitiveness. Even in its draft form this important document makes a critical contribution to the discussion about the next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, on the basis of key recommendations of the Heitor Report: 👉 FP10 must be an integral (and agile) framework programme in which 'a strengthened' FP10 is more in its sum than its parts 👉The entire FP10 should be guided by experts, including the two councils leading on technological strategy as well as societal challenges proposed by Heitor 👉 ERC and EIC must be strengthened, including in their autonomy. They should receive half of FP10's budget 👉 Collaborative research should address a time horizon of 2040, focusing on complex, cross-border technological or societal challenges. 👉 As I read it, ERA would be boosted through FP10, including specific measures to support underrepresented Member States and Regions There is much to discuss in these (short) proposals. For instance, European University alliances have clearly begun focusing on joint research projects, and there is an active discussion whether current instruments adequately reflect their potential - but I'm not persuaded that alliances as 'research institutes' hit the mark - because in my mind the connection to education must always be there. Also, there is much to think through about how we would actually create more effective instruments to support underrepresented countries. If we want to incentivise more national R&D investment, we need (in my mind) to focus on addressing underrepresentation by country, not region. I really welcome advocating more support for young researchers, including refugee scholars - but to my mind this must be done through MSCA (which is not mentioned), boosting the outstanding instrument we already have! And finally: We must not lose the international dimension of the framework programme, which is now stronger than ever. In the uncertain world of Trump 2.0, the EU needs all the tools it can muster to keep its friends close. #FP10 must be a key part of that toolbox. Still: the European Parliament is putting some extremely important proposals on the table that we should engage with - and they do give huge weight to the Heitor group's proposals as our framework for discussion! Gosse Simon Vuijk Elena Donazzan Yvan Verougstraete Hildegard Bentele Wouter Beke Michael Bloss João Cotrim de Figueiredo Matthias Ecke Sofie Eriksson Niels Fuglsang Sigrid Friis Jens Geier Ester Lakos Isabella Lövin Eva Maydell (Paunova) Dan Nica Angelika Niebler Thomas Pellerin-Carlin Benedetta Scuderi Anna Stürgkh Craig Nicholson Vanessa Debiais-Sainton #EuropeanUniversities #Universities #Research Manuel Heitor Manuel Heitor