The Working Group for Research of the Council of the EU, Ministry of Education and Culture of the Czech Republic met in Prague
Prague, September 13, 2022 – The RWG platform, which is the Research Working Group of the Council of the EU, met today in Prague. It brings together attachés for the research agenda from EU member states who discuss draft policy documents aimed at discussing the research configuration of the EU Competitiveness Council. The meeting with the participation of more than 40 delegates from EU member states was organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports in the Prague Congress Center as part of the program of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. The meeting itself was preceded by an informal weekend program in southern Bohemia.
At the very beginning of the meeting, the representatives of the European Commission informed the participants about the proposal of the EU Council Recommendation on the main principles of the evaluation of scientific knowledge in practice from this August. This takes into account the urgent need for applications, above all, to use and valorize scientific knowledge in industry in the EU so that the results of research and innovation are effectively applied in innovative products and services with a great socio-economic benefit. The proposal will begin to be considered by the RWG during September.
The representatives of the European Commission further informed about the current status of the implementation of the so-called Widening tools, the aim of which is the expansion of the EU framework program for research and innovation Horizon Europe (2021-2027) and the spread of research and innovation excellence across the EU. These instruments support the European Union that achieves less valuable results in the areas of research and innovation and include those states that have the same or the same categories as equivalent states in research and innovation performance in Europe.
The subject of Enlargement is particularly important in this half-year, when the Czech Republic, as the country holding the presidency of the Council of the EU, moderates the debate of the EU member states on the draft Conclusions of the Council of the EU on the special report of the European Court of Auditors on the evaluation of the measures of the Enlargement instruments in the previous EU framework program for research and innovation Horizon 2020 (2014 –2020). This report was published in June and confirmed, among other things, that the Widening instruments are having positive effects, but that a major shift depends primarily on the national authorities of the EU Member States, which must set research and innovation as their national priority.
In addition to the meeting itself in Prague, the members of the RWG visited the south, namely Tábor, Hluboka nad Vltavou, Holašovice and Český Krumlov, as well as the CENAKVA research infrastructure in Vodňany, which focuses on the study of processes in freshwater ecosystems and the cycle of substances in water, including the monitoring of new pollutants in environment. After returning to Prague, they visited the ELI Beamlines laser research infrastructure in Dolní Břežany and the biotechnological and biomedical center BIOCEV in Vestec. Then they dined together with the delegates of the European Research Area and Innovation Committee (ERAC).