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Investment in research: the 3% objective

In 2002 the European Commission raised the alarm about the lack of funding for Research and Innovation in Europe: at present, less than 2% of Europe's wealth (GDP) is devoted to research, which compares badly with 2.5% in the USA and more than 3% in Japan. Therefore the Heads of States and Governments made a commitment to increase expenditure in this field and encourage the private sector in their investment with the aim of meeting a target of 3% of GDP for research in order to contribute adequately to the European social and economic growth. However, progress remains slow and the debate on the 2007-2013 EU budget highlights the difficulty of making this goal concrete.

FP7 budget

EUA strongly supported the original proposals published by the European Commission in May 2005 for the new Seventh Framework Programme for research (2007-2013) which included a doubling of the budget in comparison to the current programme in line with commitments to build a European knowledge society and in order to enable the creation of new instruments such as a European Research Council.

However, the difficult negotiations on the wider subject of the EU financial perspective for the same period caused severe cuts to the research and innovation budget to be proposed. EUA reacted in June 2005 by calling on its collective members, the national rectors' conferences, to put pressure on their national government to try and ensure that commitments made in Lisbon were kept. The Association stressed that a lack of investment in research and innovation would seriously undermine Europe's future potential for economic, social and technological growth and have significant repercussions on the funds available for the new instruments proposed by the Commission, and in particular the European Research Council, which is vital for supporting university-based research in Europe.

In October 2005 as the situation became critical EUA and European Parliament decided to form a “strategic alliance” to fight for the FP7 budget. In his conclusions to the EUA Conference "Research in Universities: Strategies and Funding" in Uppsala, Sweden (20-22 October 2005), EUA President Professor Georg Winckler stressed that an inadequate level of funding “would send the wrong signal” to Europe’s higher education and research community as it works to build a Europe of Knowledge. The President’s comments came in response to the closing address by Jerzy Buzek, Member of the European Parliament and Rapporteur for FP7, who urged the university sector to strengthen its efforts through EUA in taking a firm position on the FP7 proposals. Mr Buzek called for “universities to play an active part” in influencing national governments to support the budget increase which is essential to fulfilling the ambitious Lisbon goals.

In January 2006 following the decision taken by the EU Heads of State and Government to reduce the budget for research and education, EUA urged national governments to fulfill their pledge to support Europe's future economic, scientific and social development by allocating adequate resources to these crucial areas. The Association strongly backed the European Parliament’s rejection of the agreement and the European Commission’s call to raise R&D and university spending, stating that the agreement was not acceptable as the proposed future expenditure for Research, Education and Training policies fell far short of the level of funding needed to promote change and innovation.

As the final stages of the budget adoption are completed in order for the new programme to begin in 2007, EUA will continue to contribute to the discussions and, with its partners, apply pressure on the European institutions to ensure that priorities identified by universities, such as the European Research Council, Marie Curie Actions and improved regulations and financial conditions for universities' participation in FP7, are supported with appropriate resources.

Financing of Research and Innovation in Europe's Universities

EUA’s expertise in this field includes a study undertaken in 2004, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research, on the Financing of Research and Innovation in Europe’s Universities . Intended to illustrate the main trends in the financing of university research at European level, it provides evidence of the importance attached by universities to these key funding issues. This study was based on national data provided by the national rectors’ conferences of thirty-four countries and on a sample of thirty-nine institutions from twenty-three countries which provided input through a questionnaire and interviews.

This study confirmed the enormous diversity in national funding structures. It also points out, on one hand, a relative stagnation of the national R&I budget, and on the other, a significant increase in university expenditure on R&I since 1995. It also identified that inter-disciplinary cooperation, interdisciplinary research, centres of excellence and doctoral education are considered to be the main future priorities for universities to develop at the European level.

While it is expected that funding sources will continue to diversify and be more competitive in the future, a cultural change is occurring within universities as individual researchers, departments and institutions develop a more entrepreneurial approach and become more accountable for their performance.

The issue of higher education and research funding is further analysed in the EUA series Trends which provides, every two years, an overview of the main trends in higher education institutions.

The funding of higher education and research was also the theme of the EUA conference "Funding Strong Universities: Diversification, Student Support and Good Governance" Hamburg, Germany 30 March - 1 April 2006.