and we know from our research that having academics working within a company increases both productivity and innovation. We’ve asked the European Research Area Committee, ERAC, to evaluate these instruments and assess how they are performing, as we still feel there is room for improvement.” Another mechanism that the government is looking
to develop further is one in which small businesses do research and development for the public sector. They will spark this growth by identifying problem areas in the public sector in which research and knowledge are needed and then small businesses with the right experience will be brought in to provide innovative solutions.
Research and development as a way out of financial gloom It is just one area in which Denmark’s government believes it is leading the way in helping Europe recover from recession. “There is a general consensus in EU countries that investment in research and innovation is part of the solution to the crisis that we are in,” explains Østergaard. “If we don’t develop our common European research area, we are not going to rid ourselves of our debt. The way out of Europe’s financial crisis is to be globally competitive, and so it is important that there is strong financial support.” Of course, the EC has already made a bold statement
in this regard by proposing a major increase in financial support for Horizon 2020, which replaces FP7 in 2014. With a doubling of the budget the new funding programme will become the world’s largest collaborative research programme. “One area where this extra funding can really be justified in is in the development of joint programming,” says Østergaard. “This is where we take our national resources, and, hand in hand with other countries with similar interests, use EU funds to make sure that we are getting more value for the money put in.
Challenges in moving towards Horizon 2020
“Horizon 2020 has been very inspirational for people, and everywhere we look, in science and business, there is a lot of positivity,” he continues. “What is important now is that we make today’s research policy a match for it, and to do this we must win three important battles. “The first of these is that we must raise our level of
education in Denmark. We need to aim to have 60 per cent of young people in higher education, and we believe it is important that a lot of this education is research based, meaning that it takes place in environments in which research is also done. It would also be good to see this happening in areas where we haven’t seen it before, for example in universities of applied science, and this will help to strengthen their research efforts. “The second battle that we must fight is for excellent
research. We need to make sure that our fundamental basic research is developed and therefore it is very
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important that the European Research Council is strengthened within Horizon 2020. In Denmark, 16 per cent of patents taken out of publicly funded research programmes came from Danish research foundation funds, which only constitute for two per cent of the budget. This shows us that the common view that putting money into basic research is like giving to charity is a misconception; investment in research helps to provide for better education and larger growth. “The last important challenge that we face is on the
side of innovation. There are some very interesting instruments in Horizon 2020 regarding technology transfer, and although there are some good things being done in this respect in Denmark, there is definitely room to improve. For this, strong political leadership is needed, and the best place to start is to create a national innovation agenda. In Germany, they have a hi-tech development plan that has identified five key areas in which they will look to enable projects in. This sort of system is needed in Denmark to further exploit our innovation capacity.”
Danish legacy to the EU Østergaard believes that the time put in to securing agreement on the scope of Horizon 2020 will pay off. “We are optimistic that we’ll see an increase in the budget for research, and that other countries will see that this is the best area to invest in if we want the euros that are spent through the EU system to come back in terms of jobs and growth,” he says. “What we hope for within Horizon 2020 is that we manage to achieve simplification. We need researchers to be doing research, not administration. For example, the time for getting a grant has been reduced from 12 months to nine months, but we think this should go even further. The Commission has a proposal to make one rate for financing, making it a lot simpler for companies that wish to work alongside research institutions to do so. It is steps like this that will help to create a much more agile and flexible research programme.”
The role of dissemination Dissemination is one area where Østergaard believes Denmark is lagging a little behind many parts of Europe. “We have not had enough emphasis on these activities,” he says. “So our new government has proposed that we have a new partnership to make research available for businesses and other parts of society. One thing that we would like to see in the future is to give credit to experience such as working in the private sector or having created a business when considering people for professorships. We need to break down the barriers between the research institutions and the business community. The more researchers that have experience in the private sector under their belt, the easier it will be to create a connection between the two, and although a lot of researchers are keen to do this, our system does not value this enough – yet.”
Insight Publishers | Projects
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