05 / 03 / 2020


EARTO Position Paper on Mobilising European RD&I Capabilities & Skills towards the European Green Deal

EARTO very much welcomes the ambitions of the European Green Deal. The European RD&I capabilities and skills offered by actors such as Research & Technology Organisations (RTOs) will be crucial to deliver on many of those ambitions: for the technology scale-up and deployment needed as well as for the design and implementation of new transforming policies. EARTO hereby brings forward a set of recommendations on how to further mobilise European RD&I capabilities and skills towards a sustainable and inclusive growth as defined by the European Commission under the European Green Deal:  
  • Support European technology scale-up for green and digital transition by boosting public & private investments in RD&I as key driver of sustainable and inclusive growth: recognising that Europe’s technological capabilities will be the decisive strategic factor to build Europe’s future. The European Green Deal should impact the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) by ensuring that grant-based EU programmes, aiming at further leveraging private RD&I investments in Europe like Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes, will be prioritised in the next EU budget.
  • Develop a European Strategy on Technology Infrastructures to further deliver the European Green Deal’s ambitions in terms of deploying green and digital technologies to EU leading industries. Europe should ensure it has the proper technology infrastructures to support its key industrial value chains. European industries need to have the technology infrastructures available to lower the risks of their own RD&I investments to further develop their innovation capacity (i.e. green & digital technologies up-take diffusion across EU) and support their business transformation fitting the EU Green Deal’s ambitions (incl. digitalisation).
  • Improve EU RD&I Framework Conditions for a Better Implementation of the European Green Deal: new transformative policies will need to be developed supported by a strong European Intellectual Property (IP) regime, more standardisation efforts as well as updated state aid rules.
  EARTO Members are fully convinced that Europe has the potential to lead the global innovation race and to remain a model of economic and social prosperity. EARTO Members are committed to play their part and support Europe. European RTOs will be key enablers to achieve the European Green Deal’s ambitious goals. As key actors in the European RD&I ecosystem and innovation-driven strategic value-chains, RTOs have a prominent role in EU RD&I programmes and policies.   Read the full EARTO Position Paper