Robert-Jan Smits: EU stand-off may hit research funding

A European summit in February will determine the future of billions of euros of research spending – an area where Scotland, like the rest of the UK, does particularly well.

What is at stake? The European Commission has proposed a new research programme to boost support for innovation and key industrial technologies, while strengthening our science base so that Europe can reach its 2020 objectives and match the challenge coming from Asia and other parts of the world.

The programme – called Horizon 2020 – is part of Europe’s response to the question Prime Minister David Cameron asked in Davos last week: how do we compete in the global race we are in today?

We want to refocus European Union research on challenges that are central to everyday concerns: our health, our environment, the security of our food and energy supplies and the state of our transport systems. Scotland, with its world-class universities and legendary inventors, could be well-positioned to benefit. It has the highest ratio of cited research papers relative to the size of its economy in the world, and the impact of Scottish research is second only to that from Switzerland.

We want to make €80 billion (£68bn) available for Europe’s researchers and research-intensive companies, up from nearly €55bn in 2007-13. But there are worrying signs that leaders could reject these plans. This would have clear knock-on effects. The UK is the second-largest beneficiary of the current EU research programme, with 15 per cent of total funds. According to a recent estimate, the EU budget accounts for 10 to 20 per cent of some UK universities’ research funding.

Since 2007, UK universities and businesses have received about €4.4bn, of which Scotland’s share is €440 million. The Horizon 2020 proposal could mean €12bn of funding for UK researchers over the next seven years. As we approach the next meeting of EU leaders on 7-8 February, it is worth all governments asking whether they would be doing themselves a favour by supporting a lower research budget.

• Robert-Jan Smits, the European Commission director general for research and innovation, will today speak at Edinburgh University on the opportunities Horizon 2020 offers Scotland’s higher education sector