Maria Douka, Senior Policy Officer of the European Commission: aboutuniversity-industry linkages and STI strategies at multinational level
On October 7-10, 2014 Maria Douka, Senior Policy Officer at the DG Research & Innovation, European Commission,delivered lectures at the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK).
On October 7-10, 2014 Maria Douka, Senior Policy Officer at the DG Research & Innovation, European Commission,delivered lectures at the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK).
During the lecture ‘University-Industry linkages’ Maria Douka addressed such issues as the role of universities in past and present, as well as the concept of innovation as general.
As for the role of universities it was argued that during the Medieval time of history universities served as a guarantee of societal values and knowledge preservation. During the Renaissance the center of interest in general and in universities in particular shifted towards the accomplishment of self-achievement and self-realization of human beings. With the industrial revolution universities were in charge to produce experts who should master the industrial revolution.
Nowadays universities are functioning in a market-driven competitive environment which also shapes the vision of their role and functionality, e.g. WTO approaches education as tradable commodity, in a British paper entitled ‘A vision for Research’ university appears as consultancy organization rather than an entity of curiosity driven research.
According to the speaker other modern trends which influence the revision of the role universities play in society are digital revolution, the reduction of public funding paralleled with the increasing regulatory requirements from government, massification and commercialization of education, as well as creation of managerial culture in HEIs.
Abovementioned issues triggered among the participants a debate on whether education should be treated as a service, universities as enterprises and competitive industry, and what implications that would have on the quality of education.
The speaker completed the lecture presenting different concepts and typologies of innovation along with innovation chain and so called ‘valley of death in innovation’.
The lectures ‘STI strategy building and implementation at mutlinational level (Horizon 2020 development)’ and ‘Governance of national science systems in the light of global science networks’ were dedicated to the implementation of R&D and STI policies on multinational level. The guest speaker started outlining the essence of the European Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development followed by the presentation of the concept of European Research Area (ERA) and the principles of Horizon 2020 – a new funding tool of the European Commission. M. Douka also introduced a comparative panorama of R&D policies of different EU countries.
As seen from the presentation, though research was a part of the Treaty of Rome (1957), founding theEuropean Economic Community, research funding at a European level started only in 1984 with the introduction of Framework programme – a legal frame approved by the parliament and the member states allowing the Commission to fund research activities. The aim of the programme was to establish collaboration and networking between researchers, to give them an opportunity to meet each other, to learn each other and learn to work together. Later on with the introduction of the concept of knowledge based economy to the political and economic agenda of Europe the vision of research and its role began to change: research was in charge to reinforce the competitiveness of European economy. The latter in its turn provoked debate on the relevance of ‘blue sky science’.
Besides the debate on‘curiosity-driven science’ vs. applied research in the EU there is also an ongoing dispute on communitarian and intergovernmental modes of governance rooted in the competition between the Commission and the member states. The problems relate not only to the division of competences, but also to funding issues. Besides community level funding, in order the policy to be successful, research requires also substantial funding from individual states. At the moment, however, there is a striking difference in research budgets between the old and new members of the EU. Among the successful Commission initiatives the speaker mentioned the European Research Council, ERA-NETs, Marie Curie Actions.
The final part of M. Douka’s speech was devoted to Horizon 2020 – a research and innovation funding program available for the years 2014-2020 with over €70 billion of funding. Horizon 2020 aims to create jobs, stipulate economic growth and Europe’s competitiveness by coupling research and innovation. Participants from Russia are also eligible to apply for the Programme.
Asmik Airapetyan