EU asked to “empower” universities so that they can contribute to meeting its socioeconomic targets
The proposed new political leaders of the European Commission have been urged to help universities contribute to achieving the EU’s socioeconomic aims to their fullest potential.
On 20 September, the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities published letters to eight of the politicians put forward to form the political leadership of the Commission for the coming five-year term.
Among these, it asked Ekaterina Zaharieva (pictured), the commissioner-designate for startups, research and innovation, and Piotr Serafin, the commissioner-designate for the EU budget and public administration, to “empower” universities.
“Closing the innovation gaps with major competing economies is a core objective [of the EU],” the Guild said in its letter to Serafin. “For this purpose, Europe needs to further empower universities to strengthen their research excellence.
“Universities are already crucial actors in boosting Europe’s competitiveness, and we need to be enabled to do more. By strengthening a critical mindset and nurturing evidence-based public debate, we are also critical to protecting Europe’s democracy and resilience.”
Attracting talent
The Guild similarly told Zaharieva that universities should be enabled to attract talent and that they need “the capacities as well as the framework conditions to maximise the exploitation of the knowledge produced by their researchers”.
A letter to Roxana Mînzatu, the designated executive vice-president for people, skills and preparedness, who has been given responsibility for education, stressed that universities “create knowledge, develop solutions to global and local challenges, provide technical skills, strengthen critical mindsets and creativity, and nurture informed public debate”.
The Guild asked Mînzatu to therefore “secure sufficient support for the higher education sector” so that universities can “embrace new challenges stemming from digitalisation, interdisciplinarity, educational transformation and societal engagement”.
‘Defend R&I policy’
It also asked Zaharieva and the designated executive vice-president for prosperity and industrial strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, to “defend research and innovation policy as a horizontal but standalone policy field”.
Although the EU R&I programme can contribute to many EU priorities by supporting knowledge creation, it “must be shaped by the academic community” and exclusively focus on financing R&I, the Guild urged.
With at least eight of the politicians seen as having roles relevant to universities, the Guild also asked several of them to work closely together, including to fully “capture [the] multiple roles universities play in their ecosystem”.
It said it looked forward to working with the group to “co-design” policies and their implementation.
The nominees, put forward by their national governments and assigned responsibilities by the Commission president, will be assessed for their suitability by the European Parliament over the coming weeks.
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