Last week, the European Commission launched its European Research Area Policy Platform, aspects of which researchers from UNU-MERIT and Maastricht University worked on as part of a larger consortium.
About the European Research Area
Launched in 2000, the European Research Area (ERA) aims to create a single European market for research, innovation and technology that fosters the free movement of researchers, scientific knowledge and innovation. The overarching goal is to boost Europe's competitive position in the global marketplace. Since the ERA's inception, efforts have been made to orient the European research landscape toward more cross-border cooperation, continent-wide competition, building of critical mass and coordination, and the improvement of national research policies and systems. Collectively, these practices have led to various milestone achievements over the years, and in 2021 - with the intention to revitalise and strengthen the ERA - the Council of the EU adopted a first ERA Policy Agenda for 2022 to 2024, calling on the EU Member States and the European Commission to work together towards its implementation. A Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe was also adopted, together with a new governance framework for its implementation.
The European Research Area Policy Platform
This new ERA Platform is intended to serve as a one-stop-shop for all things ERA. It brings together for the first time all current ERA policies, activities and achievements in one comprehensive overview. It will provide the latest information about how the ERA Policy Agenda is being implemented and will feature all the elements of the ERA monitoring mechanism, including interactive graphs showing the progress on ERA priorities as reported in the ERA Scoreboard and the ERA Dashboard.
UNU-MERIT researchers Kirsten Haaland, Hugo Hollanders (project leader), Aishe Khalilova, Ad Notten and Serdar Turkeli contributed - as part of a consortium led by Ecorys - to the ERA Scoreboard (which measures progress at the level of the EU) and to four country reports (Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Türkiye).
This piece of research work is one of UNU-MERIT's many projects for the European Commission on research, innovation and related policies.