The newly established group of independent experts who will help the Commission with the interim evaluation of Horizon Europe met for the first time on Tuesday.
Chaired by Manuel Heitor, Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, the group brings together independent experts from across the EU working on a wide variety of fields, which will provide valuable advice on the state of research & innovation in the EU.
The Group will meet monthly between January and October 2024 and will complement the formal interim evaluation process of Horizon Europe with their independent expert advice. Among other things, the Group will produce a report on how the EU Framework Programmes for R&I can continue to add value for the remainder of Horizon Europe and in the future (under next Framework Programme).
The Group’s report is expected to contain both strategic advice and concrete suggestions on how the programme can stay flexible to changing needs, and how it can stay attractive to researchers and innovators from the EU and beyond.
Composition of the Group
Following an open call for expressions of interest, from a pool of 359 applications, the following 15 experts were selected:
- Manuel Heitor – Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon
- Conny Aerts – Recipient of the 2022 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics
- Anders Bjarklev – President, Technical University of Denmark
- Annelien Bredenoord – Rector Magnificus, Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Maria Chiara Carrozza – President, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
- Dessislava Dimitrova – CEO, Bio Stopanstvo Lopyanko
- Heinz Fassmann – President, Austrian Academy of Sciences
- Mark Ferguson – Chair of the board, SoilSteam AS Norway
- Agrita Kiopa – Vice Rector for Research, Riga Stradinš University
- Kaia Palm – CEO, Protobios
- Adam Piotrowski – President of the board, Vigo Photonics
- Isabelle Ryl – Director, Paris Artificial Intelligence Research Institute
- Georg Schütte – Secretary-General, Volkswagen Foundation
- Sylvia Schwaag Serger – Chair of the Scientific Council, Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development
- Antti Vasara – President & CEO, VTT, Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd.
Joint Approach to Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe Evaluations
As explained in our past article, the legal bases of the EU Framework Programmes include evaluation requirements for both Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Given the significant overlap, the Commission organised both evaluations in parallel.
The final evaluation of Horizon 2020 (which will feed into the preparation process of the next EU R&I Framework Programme) is expected to be adopted and published by the end of this year, while the interim evaluation of Horizon Europe is expected to be published in early 2025.