SAFEFOODERA WORKSHOP Food Safety Research Ideas Forum 30th October 2006 Increasing the Impact of National Research Programmes through Transnational Cooperation and Opening Angus Hunter Managing Director, Optimat Ltd [e-mail]

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SAFEFOODERA WORKSHOPFood Safety Research Ideas
Forum30th October 2006Increasing the Impact
of National Research Programmes through
Transnational Cooperation and OpeningAngus
HunterManaging Director, Optimat
Ltdangus.hunter_at_optimat.co.uk
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My experience

• ERA Policy Study Author
• DG Research study on the Design of National
  Research Programmes
• Good Practice Guide on Increasing the Impact of
  National Programmes through Transnational
  Cooperation and Opening
• eTranet Project Manager
• ERA-NET on ICT for Traditional Manufacturing
  Industries (2003-2007)
• Veteran of ERA Workshops
• DG Research (ERA-NET)
• DG INFSO (CISTRANA)
• TAFTIE
• UK ERA-NET Participants

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Overview of the study

• Objectives
• Factors that encourage or inhibit transnational
  opening
• Rationale for the barriers
• Case studies of programmes that encourage TN
  cooperation
• Practical suggestions for national programme
  designers
• Scope
• All 34 countries of European Research Area
• China, Japan, USA
• Basic, applied/industrial, SME, mobility
  programmes
• Inputs
• Desk research, CREST interviews, national
  consultations
• Empirical programme survey (gt300 invited, 127
  responses)
• Expert workshops
• Manchester Conference (21/10/05) coordination
  of national programmes
• Ouputs
• Policy report for DG Research and CREST
• Good Practice Guide for national programme
  designers and managers

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Inequity across ERA
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Variable geometry
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Limited openness
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Benefits of internationalisation
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3/21 Prevalence of barriers
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Important barriers
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5/23 Prevalence of enablers
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Important enablers
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Strategies based on Objectives

• Development of knowledge-based industries
• Corint Programme (Romania)
• Industrial PhD (Denmark)
• Research and Technology Innovation Fund (Hungary)
  
• Internationalisation (of industry and
  researchers)
• Aide à linnovation Programme (France)
• CIR-CE Programme (Austria)
• FinNano Programme (Finland)
• ProInno II Programme (Germany)
• Torch Programme (China)
• Increasing scientific competitiveness
• IWT Programmes (Belgium)
• NWO Programmes (Netherlands)
• RPT Programme (Cyprus)
• Addressing societal or environmental challenges
• Food Standards Agency (UK)

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Conclusions

• Design of national programmes
• Complex, dynamic landscape
• More coordination in basic research
• More variable geometry in applied/industrial
  research
• Limited sign of landscape alignment
• Barriers to international cooperation
• Major barriers to opening of national programmes
• Policy barriers appear to be most important
• Variation between countries and cultures
• Strategies to address the barriers
• Dependent on the objectives of the programme
• Mobility and basic research programmes have more
  enablers
• Interesting differences in enablers across ERA

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Stakeholder Issues
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Other Issues

• Perception of legal barriers
• Lack of empirical evidence of the benefits
• Enablers need to be embedded in design
• Lack of opportunity for ERA networking
• ERA-NET is helping but many not involved
• Limited transnational design creativity
• Most ERA-NETs are taking a simple approach based
  on Joint Calls for international RD projects

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SAFEFOODERA WP4

• Joint Activities
• Investigate the feasibility of establishing a
  food safety research ideas forum
• For public funders
• To facilitate opportunities for joint activities

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ETRANET Research Ideas Enablers

• WP1 Networking
• 1.2 Programme benchmarking
• 1.3 Best practice exchange visits
• 1.6 Twinning activities with other countries
• WP2 Strategic Activities
• 2.1 Synthesis of strategic studies
• Forward looking
• 2.2 Sectoral observatory
• MANUFUTURE, eBusinessW_at_tch, etc
• WP3 Joint Activities
• 3.2 Analysis of programme synergies
• Backward looking
• 3.3 European database of experts/facilities
• Prerequisite for VUN
• 3.4 Virtual users network (VUN)
• WP4 Transnational Research
• 4.1 National events with users
• 4.4 Joint programme demonstrator pilots
• 4.5 EU Conference for domain experts

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Virtual Networking
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Other ERA-NETs

• Most are using the virtual common pot
• Some national agencies are involved in multiple
  ERA-NETs
• Mainly TAFTIE members
• Promoting the need for harmonised Joint Call
  systems, etc
• Worried about proliferation and fragmentation
• Most (all) have some kind of virtual networking
  system
• Are they effective ????

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More ERA creativity needed
Creative Right Brain How can we collaborate with
similar programmes in other countries to our
mutual advantage
Critical Left Brain I agree that we could
benefit from transnational cooperation and
involving foreign researchers but its just too
difficult