Academies call for more freedom in FP9

Framework 9 should give researchers greater say over which challenges they want to address and how they will go about this, a group of scientific academies has said.

The Societal Challenges pillar of Horizon 2020 is not fit for purpose, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities said in its Framework 9 position paper, published on 12 July. Calls in this pillar are “often too narrow and almost always overly prescriptive”, and this needs to change in Framework 9, Allea said.

“Calls have been drafted as solely focused on applied research to such an extreme degree that it is difficult at times to tell whether this is a research and innovation programme or a consultancy programme," the federation stated. "The whole process of establishing the work programmes for the societal challenges needs a fundamental rethink.”