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Earma 2022: research will be at forefront of efforts to achieve green and digital goals
EU efforts to get ahead of policy crises by bringing together foresight and research will focus in 2022 on the so-called ‘twin transitions’ of environmental sustainability and digitisation, as well as technology to achieve goals in these areas.
Juraj Nociar, the European Commission official most responsible for foresight in the EU institution, announced this year’s focus for its annual foresight exercise at the opening day of the European Association of Research Managers and Administrators conference.
Delivering a keynote speech at the conference in Oslo on 5 May, Nociar (pictured) said research will be at the forefront of developing technologies to achieve the two transitions.
“We have chosen the twinning of the digital and green transition as they are interconnected and can contribute to each other,” he explained.
‘Research and foresight closely linked’
In a panel session hosted by Research Professional News, Nociar said new “breakthrough” technologies and “fresh ideas and innovations” will be needed to reach the EU’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. “Research and foresight are absolutely very closely linked,” he said, adding that the 2022 Commission foresight report was due to be adopted in June.
Foresight has long been a part of the EU’s policymaking process, but in recent years it has been embedded more broadly across the European Commission and given an explicit role in decision-making. Last year’s Commission foresight report focused on the EU achieving ‘open strategic autonomy’ by 2050 in the face of growing global competition and rivalry from the likes of China. Actions stemming from this included the 2022 EU Chips Act, which promises to “mobilise more than € 43 billion of public and private investments” and overhaul Europe’s ability to develop and produce microchips.
The 2020 report was focused on resilience, in particular in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Nocjar cited the Next Generation EU pandemic recovery fund as one result. This has channeled billions of euros to EU member states, with a significant proportion of the cash going to strengthen research systems and universities.
Regarding the new twin transitions focus, Nocjar referenced the European Battery Alliance, launched in 2017 to bring research and business and public actors together with a plan to become the second largest producer of batteries world-wide by 2025.
Nociar said it had not been easy to convince politicians to swing behind the need for the EU to be more autonomous. But asked by Research Professional News whether politicians listen to foresight and research enough to get ahead of policy crises like the pandemic or the war in Ukraine, he said recent years had posed an unusual challenge for the bloc, as crisis followed crisis.
Such successive crises called for a “new way” of reaching political solutions to policy challenges, he said.
Read more news from the conference on the Research Professional News Earma 2022 page.
A version of this article appeared in Research Europe