The European Commission has published its 2024 Work Programme. (not to be confused with the Horizon Europe Work Programme, which includes the funding oportunities for 2023 and 2024).
The Commission Work Programme reflects on the achievements of the past four years (since the von der Leyen Commission took office) and outlines the institution’s new proposals for the months ahead. While there is nothing directly linked to research and innovation or Horizon Europe more specifically, there are two upcoming legislative initiatives that will impact research and innovation in some areas:
- Artificial intelligence to serve European innovation and competitiveness –
A new initiative to open up European supercomputer capacity to ethical and responsible artificial intelligence start-ups (legislative and non-legislative, Q1 2024) - Proposal for a reform of the Union general pharmaceutical legislation – The revised framework includes the removal of certain reporting requirements such as the yearly requirement of developers of medicinal products for rare diseases to submit a report to the European Medicines Agency on the state of development of the medicines for rare diseases or for children; the requirement for Member States to report on national measures to support research, development, availability of medicines for rare diseases or for children; the requirement to provide information for an inventory of therapeutic needs; the requirement for Member States to report on cases where they waived certain manufacturing requirements; the requirement for Member States to report changes made to the list of the authorised medicines subject to medical prescription. It also provides for a reduction of frequency of reporting on audits of pharmacovigilance system.
The full list of new/revised policy initiatives is available in the annexes to the Commission Work Programme.