Brussels, 24 September 2019
The European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers (Eurodoc), the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), and the Young Academy of Europe (YAE) who together represent excellent researchers at all career stages, across Europe and abroad, today reaffirm their position that education, research and innovation in Europe must be strongly supported. As signatories and active supporters of the #EUInvestInKnowledge campaign, Eurodoc, MCAA and YAE call on governments, institutions and leaders across Europe to strengthen the investment at European level and urge them to raise the budget of the next EU Programme for R&I (2021-2027), Horizon Europe, to at least €120 billion.
Eva Hnatkova (President, Eurodoc): “We believe that for the future prosperity of Europe, it is important to give more power to confront existing challenges and to strengthen the overall R&I capacity in Europe. No other research system in the world operates in this way and we are deeply concerned by the ongoing discussions about decreasing the budget. Any decrease in budget for Horizon Europe would hurt scientific, economical and societal impact on a long term scale.”
Mangala Srinivas (Chair, Young Academy of Europe): “The grand challenges we are facing today, as captured by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, represent an enormous opportunity to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. Europe can and should lead the way on this journey; it is our responsibility to others and to future generations. To achieve this, education, research and innovation are crucial and must be strongly supported. In particular, ‘blue sky’ research, which forms the basis of future innovation, is nearly fully reliant on government funding. Loss of such funding today will mean less innovation tomorrow.”
Matthew DiFranco (Chair, Marie Curie Alumni Association): “The discussion on the budget is currently led by the European Council, where government ministers from each EU country meet. Some national ministers have been pushing for a decrease in budget, and we urge all those who value education, research and innovation to loudly resist these cuts and instead demand a strengthening of the Horizon Europe budget. Now is not the time to turn to isolation and curb our ambitions; only together can we create a strong, prosperous and sustainable Europe for us all.”
Signed by Eva Hnatkova (President, The European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers), Mangala Srinivas (Chair, Young Academy of Europe) and Matthew DiFranco (Chair, Marie Curie Alumni Association) on 24 September 2019.
Contact: MCAA Policy Working Group, WG-PSR@mariecuriealumni.eu
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