Have you heard the (sad) news?
Last Tuesday 21st July, EU leaders agreed on the final Horizon Europe budget. But instead of being the foreseen €94.4 billions it got slashed down to €80.9 billions.
This decision was made after an intense five-day marathon summit where EU leaders had to find a compromise. One of the reasons for not meeting the expectations is the great difference between EU countries which actually benefit from the research and innovation programme (mainly richer, northwestern countries) and those which don’t (mainly poorer countries). And to make the deal happen something had to be sacrificed.
But in the end, we all lose.
You would imagine the current times would suffice to prove the importance of investing in research. But obviously not. The new Horizon Europe budget is actually very similar to the almost-finishing programme, Horizon 2020, which also received heavy cuts back in 2013.
At Europa Media we are all very disappointed at the idea of sacrificing science, and we stand by the strong views of Richard L.Hudson, editor-in-chief at Science Business.
Gabriella Lovasz, EU funds expert and Managing Director at Europa Media, adds:
“While I do not think there is any war so to say that can be won now, I kind of feel the anger and pain this viewpoint has”
Just go on Twitter and type Horizon Europe. It’ll be a tough mission to find someone who is remotely satisfied with the current budget division. Statements go from ‘Research is the big victim’, to ‘incomprehensible’ to ‘disappointing’.
At this point, we need to ensure the greatest use of this budget despite the bad taste those decisions left in our mouth.
If you want to read more on the topic, we recommend the following articles:
In case you missed our news on Horizon Europe, please click on the article below:
