European leaders agreed to cut the EU budget last week by around 3%, but opinion is divided about what this cut will mean for European Research funding.
H2020 is part of the “Competiveness Programme” which, according to University World News, will have its total budget reduced by €14 billion and the research programme budget reduced to €69 billion. This is a significant decrease from what was expected: in November last year, the European Commission proposed a budget of €80 million. The more research-friendly European parliament had proposed €100 billion.
Nature was quite clear in its disapproval last week, with the headline “EU leaders slash the European research budget”. This may not be the final budget, says Nature hopefully, given the complex nature of the Commission’s decision making system. However, inside sources have suggested there is little room for manoeuvre.
A more positive headline appeared in the Times Higher Education Supplement – “European research budget proposals welcomed”, it proclaimed. This article puts this Horizon 2020 budget at almost €71 billion, pointing out this is much higher than the €55 billion awarded to Framework 7.
There has been some certainty: exact budgets have been approved for several projects outside Horizon 2020: €6.3 billion for the satellite system Galileo, €2.7 billion for the experimental nuclear fusion reactor ITER; and a disappointing €3.8 billion for the Earth observation satellite system GMES which originally requested nearly €6 billion.
The final wording of the published conclusions provided some good news. It seems there will be a real term increase for Horizon 2020 compared to 2013. At the last minute a sentence was introduced into the Multi annual financial framework conclusions stating:
“Given their particular contribution to the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the funding for Horizon 2020 and ERASMUS for all programmes will represent a real growth compared to 2013 level.”
One area which will lose out considerably within the “ Competitiveness Programme” is digital projects where funding has been cut from €8.2 billion to just €1 billion.
The limited reductions may be due in part to the influential lobbying of scientists across Europe, including a clear warning (and open letter in the Financial Times) from the Russell Group of top UK universities to the British Prime Minister David Cameron.
“If research grants are slashed to subsidise European agriculture, Britain will lose out,” said Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General of the Russell Group.
We will have to wait and see what happens, and also how the funds will be distributed within the new budget. VA is particularly interested in whether funding for Science and Society matters will be protected. Negotiations of the details will no doubt be just as tense and just as confusing.
Image courtesy of njaj at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
