Science Europe seeks new thinking on JPIs

A leading European research association has called on policy makers “to take stock of the past” and “avoid allowing simplistic ‘fragmentation’ narratives” to guide decision making as part of an evaluation of a public policy instrument used to address the grand challenges.

Science Europe says that over the last six years since the Lund Declaration on grand challenges, and the subsequent launch of the Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs), publicly funded research has markedly increased its focus on grand challenges. It says that EU member states have delivered on the declaration by forging both European and national strategies in relation to the challenges.

Whilst the body’s members consider JPIs to be valuable instruments to address major societal challenges by linking up the whole research and innovation chain and leveraging available resources, they also find that the current narrative used to describe the benefit of JPIs largely falls short of the role that the instruments actually play.

Amanda Crowfoot, director of Science Europe, said: “After several years of experience, JPIs are now maturing and need to be consolidated in order to fully deliver on their potential. As a result, it is important for all JPI stakeholders to reflect on their own roles with regards to JPIs, as well as on the wider role of JPIs within the European Research Area. A shared understanding of the role and impact of JPIs is essential, and will help to ensure appropriate criteria for assessment and fruitful future policy directions.”

Science Europe is calling for future debates to be centred on “a thorough assessment of existing JPIs” and to “open up the JPI governance to stakeholder input”.

The association’s position statement on the added value of JPIs as perceived by its members can be read here. The EU is currently conducting an open evaluation on the initiatives.