VISIONS FOR HORIZON 2020- from Copenhagen Research Forum
Code:
E06
Primary project information
Lead:
Copenhagen Research Forum
Additional project partners:
Editorial Board: Professor Liselotte Højgaard MD, DMSc, Professor Deborah Smith; Tine Willum Hansen MD, DMSc; Professor Peter Olesen, Director Kees de Gooijer, Anna Munck Laybourn; Professor Katherine Richardson, Professor Johan Rockström, Mai Winstrup; Professor Ole Wæver, Professor Loet Leydesdorff, Kristoffer Kropp; Head of Department Niels Buus Kristensen, Programme Director Dr Christian Piehler,Claus Hedegaard Sørensen; Dr Jørgen Kjems, Professor Kjell Hugo Bendiksen, Nicolaj Tofte Benneche; Anne Line Mikkelsen, Torben Høøck Hansen, Jan Andersen
Type of activity:
expert assassment report
Date conducted:
2011-2012
Date of Publication:
February 2012
Duration:
6 MONTHS
Summary:
In the autumn of 2011, Copenhagen Research Forum invited more than 600 European researchers to contribute their comments and ideas concerning the six societal challenges in health, food & agriculture, energy, transport, climate & resources and societies that form an important part of Horizon 2020 – the next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
Financed by:
University of Copenhagen, Technical University of Denmark and the Capital Region of Copenhagen
Budget:
N/A
Research area/market/industry/sector:
Health, demographic change and wellbeing ; Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research and the bio-economy ; Secure, clean and ef cient energy ; Smart, green and integrated transport ; Climate action, resource ef ciency and raw materials ; Inclusive, innovative and secure societies
Main report (full title):
VISIONS FOR HORIZON 2020
- from Copenhagen Research Forum
- from Copenhagen Research Forum
GRAND CHALLENGES
Societal Challenges:
Food: The overriding challenges of increasing demand, competition for land use and other resource scarcities put massive pressure on agriculture and the food and feed industry to produce signi cantly more per unit of a given resource. Food, agriculture and land use must be seen in a much more complex and multi-directional value chain, where research and innovation must encompass needs and opportunities from climate, available resources, environmental sustainability, transport, energy and health perspectives, not to mention social and economic requirements.
The processing of food, feed, bio-energy and bio-materials must also be seen, to a much greater extent, from a holistic perspective that includes a full life-cycle approach to the use of raw materials, either for their fresh use or their conversion into shelf-stable and re ned products and their use in the associated supply chain. Here, key objectives are reductions in food waste and water consumption, valorisation of all bio-resources, including municipal bio-waste and agro- and bioindustrial side streams, as well as the recycling of sufficient amounts of carbon and phosphor to maintain soil vitality. V Valorisation from biomass must be optimised by developing and utilising smart and energy-ef cient processing chains, while maintaining the chemical integrity of valuable components and exploiting the highest value from each biomass component (e.g. nutraceuticals for gut health improvement, food ingredients, proteins, optimised animal feed, biopolymers, bres, chemical feedstocks, car fuel, and, nally, converting any remaining residues to biogas, electricity and heat. Increasing prevalence of diet-related diseases and disorders calls for a balanced health care concept more geared towards prevention.
This calls for new knowledge for the development of affordable and effective dietary adjustments for better health at individual and population levels, with special emphasis on children’s needs and the ageing population. (7) a considerable risk remains that this challenge of ‘inclusive, innovative and secure societies’ will become at best the three sub-challenges of ‘inclusion’, ‘innovation’ plus ‘security’, with the potential for furthe disintegrating into separate topics (calls). Integrating them demands carefully attending to the cross-cutting themes within this broad challenge (which de facto covers most of the social sciences and agood deal of the humanities, plus some informatics, etc.) as well as formulating some currently still absent linkages to other challenges. (10)
The processing of food, feed, bio-energy and bio-materials must also be seen, to a much greater extent, from a holistic perspective that includes a full life-cycle approach to the use of raw materials, either for their fresh use or their conversion into shelf-stable and re ned products and their use in the associated supply chain. Here, key objectives are reductions in food waste and water consumption, valorisation of all bio-resources, including municipal bio-waste and agro- and bioindustrial side streams, as well as the recycling of sufficient amounts of carbon and phosphor to maintain soil vitality. V Valorisation from biomass must be optimised by developing and utilising smart and energy-ef cient processing chains, while maintaining the chemical integrity of valuable components and exploiting the highest value from each biomass component (e.g. nutraceuticals for gut health improvement, food ingredients, proteins, optimised animal feed, biopolymers, bres, chemical feedstocks, car fuel, and, nally, converting any remaining residues to biogas, electricity and heat. Increasing prevalence of diet-related diseases and disorders calls for a balanced health care concept more geared towards prevention.
This calls for new knowledge for the development of affordable and effective dietary adjustments for better health at individual and population levels, with special emphasis on children’s needs and the ageing population. (7) a considerable risk remains that this challenge of ‘inclusive, innovative and secure societies’ will become at best the three sub-challenges of ‘inclusion’, ‘innovation’ plus ‘security’, with the potential for furthe disintegrating into separate topics (calls). Integrating them demands carefully attending to the cross-cutting themes within this broad challenge (which de facto covers most of the social sciences and agood deal of the humanities, plus some informatics, etc.) as well as formulating some currently still absent linkages to other challenges. (10)
Health Challenges:
To relieve the threat to human health and welfare imposed by an expanding number of major health challenges, biomedical research and its implementation in clinical practice must be supported and accelerated. To achieve this in the next decade, a paradigm shift toward personalised medicine will be of major importance, with the overriding aim of improving every citizen’s lifelong health and wellbeing. Basic, translational, and clinical research of high quality provides the foundation for European health systems, offering the opportunity to link with social, cultural, and environmental expertise to facilitate world-class multidisciplinary research. The global revolution in biomedicine is also providing access to new technologies that will require expansion and implementation to tackle the health challenges that Europe faces.
A European platform engaging all key stakeholders to ensure discovery and delivery of these technologies will be crucial. Establishment of a European Strategic Action for Healthier Citizens is also recommended to assist in strategic long-term healthcare research and planning, including preventive measures, and the delivery of best practice across Europe. In most European countries, healthcare is a driving factor for investment – in industry, in education and training, and in the European knowledge base for wealth creation. The proposals in this document wil lenhance investment and create jobs in research and innovation, improve the healthcare status of Europeans and at the same timedrive down integrated societal healthcare costs.
A European platform engaging all key stakeholders to ensure discovery and delivery of these technologies will be crucial. Establishment of a European Strategic Action for Healthier Citizens is also recommended to assist in strategic long-term healthcare research and planning, including preventive measures, and the delivery of best practice across Europe. In most European countries, healthcare is a driving factor for investment – in industry, in education and training, and in the European knowledge base for wealth creation. The proposals in this document wil lenhance investment and create jobs in research and innovation, improve the healthcare status of Europeans and at the same timedrive down integrated societal healthcare costs.
Mobility Challenges:
TRANSPORT: If cient and sustainable transport for people and goods is vital for Europe’s prosperity. The transport sector’s overall mission to provide mobility is constrained by a complex set of multiple additional considerations which can be summarised in the comprehensive concept of “environmental and societal sustainability”. The complexity of the transport (sub)-challenges urges for continuous research and development and requires closer cooperation across scienti c domains and integration across universities, research institutions and industry than in the past. In addition, the multiple and to some extent con icting aims for transport policy have to be taken into account in the research strategy for every speci c research activity. The radical transformations of the transport sector required to achieve the vision of ‘smart, green and integrated transport’ call for cross cutting research and research on feasible transition pathways.
The range of highly relevant transport research topics is broad. However, there are three overriding challenges facing the development of a competitive and sustainable transport system which are absolutelycrucial and particularly hard to solve and where research therefore should be prioritised as an essential part of the solutions: Smart: Congestion due to overexploitation of system capacity; Green: Greenhouse gas emissions from transport’s oil dependency; Integrated: A modally divided and vulnerable transport system. Technological innovation will still be of paramount importance as development of novel and more ef cient technologies will be pivotal for reaching the main European transport policy goals: • Cleaner and safer vehicles for all modes; • Cost-effective alternative fuels, (electric) drives, propulsiontechnologies, battery and chemical storage of energy and new materials for vehicle construction;• Advanced ICT for personalised real-time travel information with modal integration, metropolitan trafic management and smart payment systems;to highlight a few exceedingly important areas which will require massive investments in R&DI towards 2020 and beyond. A signi cant change of modal split away from cars is necessarily an essential part of the solution.
This will also make cities more liveable, but it will require both sticks and carrots to achieve, e.g. urban road pricing schemes accompanied by more competitive public transport and facilities for cycling and walking. Expectations for increasingly scarce funding for infrastructureimprovements highlights the need for cross-modal integration as a means to improve overall ef cient and sustainable mobility rather than effectiveness at modal level. Further development and implementation of concepts such as door-to-door mobility, seamless connectivity, and global interoperability can contribute to more customeroriented services. In the future, transport may be more vulnerable to extreme events, and this calls for research in resilient systems. Finally, traf c is still responsible for a death toll in the EU of about 35,000 annually and many more serious injuries. Hence, in spite of dramatic improvements in traf c safety over the last four decades, substantial research efforts are still indispensable. Reaching the‘close to zero’ vision will require a paradigm shift toward a holistic system approach.
The range of highly relevant transport research topics is broad. However, there are three overriding challenges facing the development of a competitive and sustainable transport system which are absolutelycrucial and particularly hard to solve and where research therefore should be prioritised as an essential part of the solutions: Smart: Congestion due to overexploitation of system capacity; Green: Greenhouse gas emissions from transport’s oil dependency; Integrated: A modally divided and vulnerable transport system. Technological innovation will still be of paramount importance as development of novel and more ef cient technologies will be pivotal for reaching the main European transport policy goals: • Cleaner and safer vehicles for all modes; • Cost-effective alternative fuels, (electric) drives, propulsiontechnologies, battery and chemical storage of energy and new materials for vehicle construction;• Advanced ICT for personalised real-time travel information with modal integration, metropolitan trafic management and smart payment systems;to highlight a few exceedingly important areas which will require massive investments in R&DI towards 2020 and beyond. A signi cant change of modal split away from cars is necessarily an essential part of the solution.
This will also make cities more liveable, but it will require both sticks and carrots to achieve, e.g. urban road pricing schemes accompanied by more competitive public transport and facilities for cycling and walking. Expectations for increasingly scarce funding for infrastructureimprovements highlights the need for cross-modal integration as a means to improve overall ef cient and sustainable mobility rather than effectiveness at modal level. Further development and implementation of concepts such as door-to-door mobility, seamless connectivity, and global interoperability can contribute to more customeroriented services. In the future, transport may be more vulnerable to extreme events, and this calls for research in resilient systems. Finally, traf c is still responsible for a death toll in the EU of about 35,000 annually and many more serious injuries. Hence, in spite of dramatic improvements in traf c safety over the last four decades, substantial research efforts are still indispensable. Reaching the‘close to zero’ vision will require a paradigm shift toward a holistic system approach.
Cross-cutting Challenges:
HEALTH, DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE AND WELLBEING Basic, translational, and clinical research are the foundation of European health systems and services, and the social, cultural, and environmental factors that affect health need to be linked ina multidisciplinary approach. An important solution for the health challenges Europe faces involves rethinking conventional biomedical practices and converting to personalised medicine. This paradigm shift is dependent upon obtaining a detailed descriptionof individual biological variation in connection with the environmental, societal, and lifestyle factors that in uence the development of disease.
FOOD SECURITY, SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE, MARINE AND MARITIME RESEARCH AND THE BIO-ECONOMY The complexity of the challenges related to food, feed and biomass production and the associated multi-directional value chain from primary production to the needs and opportunities from climate change and its mitigation, available resources, environment, new biomaterials, energy, food, feed, health, transport, and new biomaterials perspectives calls for an interactive and multidisciplinary cross-cutting research and innovation approach that embraces the other ve de ned societal challenges. It is critical that research andinnovation in this area are addressed in a fully integrated manner, including social science and humanities perspectives at all points along the food value chain in order to realise the huge potentialof challenge-driven and interactive innovations. Increases in theprevalenc of diet-related diseases and disorders and the associated steep growth in public health costs and the deterioration of individual quality of life emphasises the need to develop a more balanced health care concept geared towards prevention.
(16) SECURE, CLEAN AND EFFICIENT ENERGY The transition towards carbon-free energy solutions calls for a more integrated approach combining technological, economic, social and cultural aspects, and for better cooperation between policy and research. Sustainable energy solutions need two types of approaches: Highly innovative technology research plus a new approach to systemic research and innovation challenges.The rst type is already being pursued adequately as a result of SET plan efforts to organise energy research on a European scale. However concerning the second type, the SET plan lacks the systemic approach and does not suf ciently mobilise universities. Universities represent a major opportunity for expanding the knowledge base and for addressing problems at system level through new instruments using problem-oriented, cross-disciplinary collaboration. The systemic approach should involve expertise from a variety of scienti c areas depending on the problemto be solved. Many of the key transition challenges in energy transcend the scope of individual technologies (wind, solar etc.)and individual disciplines. Combining advanced energy technology with innovative approaches to systemic problem solving constitutes a major challenge in Horizon 2020, but also a major opportunity for European research and industry. The combination of energy expertise with food and agriculture, transportation, health, climate and societal expertise can further ensure the development of lasting solutions and balanced transformations of energy systems.
(17) SMART, GREEN AND INTEGRATED TRANSPORT Health: Biking and walking helps prevent many conditions, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, some cancers, depression, and osteoporosis. On the other hand, tail pipe emissions of air pollutants, traf c noise and accidents all takes heavy death tolls every year and causes severe impacts on human health and well-being which also entail substantial economic costs to society. The ageing population makes new mobility demands which are also strongly related to physical conditions of elder people. Food: Widespread use of rst generation biofuels for transport can crowd out food production on arable land and drive up food prices with signi cant global impacts on living conditions of poor people. Energy: The transport sectors’ signi cant share of total consumption makes the link with energy obvious. Further, transport’s almost sole dependency on oil places it at the core of energy security. Transition to alternative energy sources, e.g. via electric vehicles will set new requirements to the power distribution net but also potentials in terms of smart grids. Climate: Transport is one of the main contributors to global GHG emissions and the share is rising. Hence, transport should be at the centr of mitigation efforts, yet transport CO2 emissions have shown very dif cult reduce. Adaption to climate change is also calls for heavy investment to make transport infrastructure resilient to extreme weather events. Societies An ef cient transport system is an essential framework condition for a competitive industry and the functioning of the internal market. Hence, further research in how direct effects of improving the transport system transform into industrial competitive ness andeconomic growth is crucial and of topical interest with a view to the current economic crisis and the need to revitalize Europe’s competitiveness. Secure mobility is essential for a secure society as terrorist actions has often focused on transport. Finally, cultural cohesion is fostered by high mobility and sustainable lifestyles are closely linked to environmental impacts of our transport pattern.
INCLUSIVE, INNOVATIVE AND SECURE SOCIETIES. Some of the many important cross-linkages to the ve other societal challenges are: how health both supports and is furthered by inclusion and innovation (and by security, in the wide sense of the word); the centrality of transport and energy as infrastructures that condition the achievement of inclusive, innovative and secure societies; and the importance of thoroughly thinking climate sustainability into all technological developments in society. Furthermore, the veother challenges contain potential contributions to economic growththat will be important in achieving these three aims for societies Yet some formats for growth can have negative effects, especiallyregarding inclusion, if particular groups are marginalised. It will be crucial to connect and contrast knowledge about innovation that emerges ‘bottom up’ from speci c elds with more generic innovation research in order to both optimise speci c procedures in research and development and to adjust society in ways that generally foster innovation. Ultimately, the challenge is how to be innovative about innovation. (20)
FOOD SECURITY, SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE, MARINE AND MARITIME RESEARCH AND THE BIO-ECONOMY The complexity of the challenges related to food, feed and biomass production and the associated multi-directional value chain from primary production to the needs and opportunities from climate change and its mitigation, available resources, environment, new biomaterials, energy, food, feed, health, transport, and new biomaterials perspectives calls for an interactive and multidisciplinary cross-cutting research and innovation approach that embraces the other ve de ned societal challenges. It is critical that research andinnovation in this area are addressed in a fully integrated manner, including social science and humanities perspectives at all points along the food value chain in order to realise the huge potentialof challenge-driven and interactive innovations. Increases in theprevalenc of diet-related diseases and disorders and the associated steep growth in public health costs and the deterioration of individual quality of life emphasises the need to develop a more balanced health care concept geared towards prevention.
(16) SECURE, CLEAN AND EFFICIENT ENERGY The transition towards carbon-free energy solutions calls for a more integrated approach combining technological, economic, social and cultural aspects, and for better cooperation between policy and research. Sustainable energy solutions need two types of approaches: Highly innovative technology research plus a new approach to systemic research and innovation challenges.The rst type is already being pursued adequately as a result of SET plan efforts to organise energy research on a European scale. However concerning the second type, the SET plan lacks the systemic approach and does not suf ciently mobilise universities. Universities represent a major opportunity for expanding the knowledge base and for addressing problems at system level through new instruments using problem-oriented, cross-disciplinary collaboration. The systemic approach should involve expertise from a variety of scienti c areas depending on the problemto be solved. Many of the key transition challenges in energy transcend the scope of individual technologies (wind, solar etc.)and individual disciplines. Combining advanced energy technology with innovative approaches to systemic problem solving constitutes a major challenge in Horizon 2020, but also a major opportunity for European research and industry. The combination of energy expertise with food and agriculture, transportation, health, climate and societal expertise can further ensure the development of lasting solutions and balanced transformations of energy systems.
(17) SMART, GREEN AND INTEGRATED TRANSPORT Health: Biking and walking helps prevent many conditions, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, some cancers, depression, and osteoporosis. On the other hand, tail pipe emissions of air pollutants, traf c noise and accidents all takes heavy death tolls every year and causes severe impacts on human health and well-being which also entail substantial economic costs to society. The ageing population makes new mobility demands which are also strongly related to physical conditions of elder people. Food: Widespread use of rst generation biofuels for transport can crowd out food production on arable land and drive up food prices with signi cant global impacts on living conditions of poor people. Energy: The transport sectors’ signi cant share of total consumption makes the link with energy obvious. Further, transport’s almost sole dependency on oil places it at the core of energy security. Transition to alternative energy sources, e.g. via electric vehicles will set new requirements to the power distribution net but also potentials in terms of smart grids. Climate: Transport is one of the main contributors to global GHG emissions and the share is rising. Hence, transport should be at the centr of mitigation efforts, yet transport CO2 emissions have shown very dif cult reduce. Adaption to climate change is also calls for heavy investment to make transport infrastructure resilient to extreme weather events. Societies An ef cient transport system is an essential framework condition for a competitive industry and the functioning of the internal market. Hence, further research in how direct effects of improving the transport system transform into industrial competitive ness andeconomic growth is crucial and of topical interest with a view to the current economic crisis and the need to revitalize Europe’s competitiveness. Secure mobility is essential for a secure society as terrorist actions has often focused on transport. Finally, cultural cohesion is fostered by high mobility and sustainable lifestyles are closely linked to environmental impacts of our transport pattern.
INCLUSIVE, INNOVATIVE AND SECURE SOCIETIES. Some of the many important cross-linkages to the ve other societal challenges are: how health both supports and is furthered by inclusion and innovation (and by security, in the wide sense of the word); the centrality of transport and energy as infrastructures that condition the achievement of inclusive, innovative and secure societies; and the importance of thoroughly thinking climate sustainability into all technological developments in society. Furthermore, the veother challenges contain potential contributions to economic growththat will be important in achieving these three aims for societies Yet some formats for growth can have negative effects, especiallyregarding inclusion, if particular groups are marginalised. It will be crucial to connect and contrast knowledge about innovation that emerges ‘bottom up’ from speci c elds with more generic innovation research in order to both optimise speci c procedures in research and development and to adjust society in ways that generally foster innovation. Ultimately, the challenge is how to be innovative about innovation. (20)
Other Challenges:
Energy: Secure, clean, and ef cient energy is rightly chosen as a key focus area in the Horizon 2020 agenda as it is essential to be able to provide the EU with clean, reliable and affordable energy midway through this century.
Stronger national and transnational efforts, as well as better coherence and coordination are badly needed between national and joint European efforts, including publicprivate partnerships with all EU countries. This requires Europeanscale management and support in order to:
(1) enable a decisive contribution to climate protection;
(2) achieve European technology leadership; and to
(3) give adequate support to European industry.
Horizon 2020 priorities should build on:
(1) a revised SET-Plan based on a thorough review at the beginning of Horizon 2020, including a critical update of the road maps based on ambitious but realistic scenarios for the development and deployment of technologies, and
(2) a complementary systemic approach to combine technological, economic, political, social and cultural research to facilitate the transformation of the energy system as a whole. Collaboration of social sciences and humanities with “hard sciences” must be recognised as necessary and organised and funded accordingly to meet the challenges at system level.
More efficient innovation programmes and new instruments are needed to couple educational efforts with research and innovation to ensure that enough trained talent is available to realise the ambitious roll-out scenarios for the different energy technologies, and for the transformation of the energy system as a whole. Direct mobilisation of universities in addressing systemic challenges should be given high priority. Mobility of scientists and students among research institutions and industry should be pursued through new types of exible grants. Transfer of knowledge from universities to students and companies must be made in a more ef cient way. Public technology procurement policies could be used to shorten the time from research to market.
Stronger national and transnational efforts, as well as better coherence and coordination are badly needed between national and joint European efforts, including publicprivate partnerships with all EU countries. This requires Europeanscale management and support in order to:
(1) enable a decisive contribution to climate protection;
(2) achieve European technology leadership; and to
(3) give adequate support to European industry.
Horizon 2020 priorities should build on:
(1) a revised SET-Plan based on a thorough review at the beginning of Horizon 2020, including a critical update of the road maps based on ambitious but realistic scenarios for the development and deployment of technologies, and
(2) a complementary systemic approach to combine technological, economic, political, social and cultural research to facilitate the transformation of the energy system as a whole. Collaboration of social sciences and humanities with “hard sciences” must be recognised as necessary and organised and funded accordingly to meet the challenges at system level.
More efficient innovation programmes and new instruments are needed to couple educational efforts with research and innovation to ensure that enough trained talent is available to realise the ambitious roll-out scenarios for the different energy technologies, and for the transformation of the energy system as a whole. Direct mobilisation of universities in addressing systemic challenges should be given high priority. Mobility of scientists and students among research institutions and industry should be pursued through new types of exible grants. Transfer of knowledge from universities to students and companies must be made in a more ef cient way. Public technology procurement policies could be used to shorten the time from research to market.
Summary of relevant aspects
Aspects of ERA Governance:
Future research solutions (7). the focus in Horizon 2020 should be to underpin decisions designed to increase the ef ciency and impact of the societal response. This will, however, include research on the climate and other resource systems in order to better understand systemic interactions, the collection of baseline information, and the establishment of monitoring activities to assess the ef cacy of different mitigation and adaptation approaches. (10) need to transcend and expand our traditional view, and true cross-cutting research is the key word.
The Horizon 2020 program should, therefore stimulate and encourage collaboration between the research communities associated with the 6 challenges. One possible organisational mechanism for achieving this goal could be that, in addition to programme elements dedicated to each of the challenges, an element could be established that cuts across all disciplines. In this manner, it could be ensured that resources were speci cally dedicated to the issues that cut across the individual challenges. The solutions to the societal challenges cannot be seen only in a European perspective, as the nature of most of the problems is global. Research collaboration with the best teams in other parts of the world will bring better solutions, faster and cheaper, through sharing and collaboration. Europe can provide the platform and framework and initiate the needed global research collaboration
The Horizon 2020 program should, therefore stimulate and encourage collaboration between the research communities associated with the 6 challenges. One possible organisational mechanism for achieving this goal could be that, in addition to programme elements dedicated to each of the challenges, an element could be established that cuts across all disciplines. In this manner, it could be ensured that resources were speci cally dedicated to the issues that cut across the individual challenges. The solutions to the societal challenges cannot be seen only in a European perspective, as the nature of most of the problems is global. Research collaboration with the best teams in other parts of the world will bring better solutions, faster and cheaper, through sharing and collaboration. Europe can provide the platform and framework and initiate the needed global research collaboration
Surprising Issues:
critizing Horizon 2020: (10) underestimates the power of citizens and communities tocontribute to the realisation of inclusion, innovation and security. -- Central docudment for Challenges the ERA is facing and trying to deal with in Horizon 2020!
Background information:
Copenhagen Research Forum was established by the University of Copenhagen, Technical University of Denmark and the Capital Region of Denmark in autumn 2011. The aim was to create a forum where researchers in Europe, independently and without any otheragenda, could discuss and contribute to the European Commission’s proposal for the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation: Horizon 2020.
Scenarios
Actions/solutions implied:
The social sciences and humanities can play key roles in relation to both the other ve grand challenges and the signi cant ones, they have identi ed themselves. It is particularly important that researchers in the SSH engage scholars in the hard sciences in a joint effort to cultivate research-based innovation regarding the way expertise and democracy interact.
(10) HEALTH: Translational research is the bridge or link taking basic research results from the bench to the bedside and back. When clinical research has been established as new treatment, implementation of this new treatment in clinical every day practice is needed.
(24) FOOD: A fundamental principle of research in this area ought to be a focus on the development of a completely new knowledge and innovation platform that supports a long-overdue paradigm shift in the agriculture and food industry value chain.
(32) ENERGY: European energy research should support European political aims, including the preparation and setting-up of a stronger European energy infrastructure. In line with the subsidiary principle, big challenges call for joint European efforts. Energy research conducted at the European level is the appropriate approach to match the challenges and to achieve the critical mass required for big and demanding projects, including research infrastructures and demonstration projects. Stronger national and transnational efforts are needed and require European-scale management and support in order to: (1) enable a decisive contribution to climate protection; (2) achieve European technology leadership; and to (3) give the highest possible support to European industry.
(42) TRANSPORT: REDUCING CONGESTION BY BETTER UTILISATION OF EXISTING CAPACITY AND CHANGED MODAL SPLIT (SMART); TARGETS FOR GHG REDUCTION REQUIRE RADICAL TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES AND FACILITATION OF THEIR MARKET UPTAKE (GREEN); CUSTOMER-ORIENTED CROSS-MODAL INTEGRATION AND RESILIENCE (INTEGRATED); A MORE PRONOUNCED ROLE OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES; EFFICIENT RESEARCH BY STRENGTHENING INTEGRATION OF SCIENTIFIC DOMAINS; A ZERO VISION ON ROAD FATALITIES REQUIRES A PARADIGM SHIFT TO A ’SAFE SYSTEM’ APPROACH;
(55)CLIMATE The research needs required to deal with climate change and other resource issues are varied and at different levels of complexity and ambition. The total set of research needs can be thought of as being assembled in a sort of “knowledge tower.” The base of the tower consists of data collection systems while, at the very top are placed the grand societal experiment testing solutions developed on the basis of research.
(66) SOCIETIES: The Horizon 2020 proposal identi es important societal challenges, to which the social sciences and humanities can contribute. At this point, the structure of the proposal – separating innovation,
inclusion and security – blocks the view to even larger challenges that cut across these issues. Some of the more pressing are:• Cultures of innovation and openness need cultivation at many layers from individual to European. • The welfare state must be reinvented. • Politics is being recreated in new forms. • Divergency and Diversity are rede ning European Unity. • Analyses and policies need to be international.
(10) HEALTH: Translational research is the bridge or link taking basic research results from the bench to the bedside and back. When clinical research has been established as new treatment, implementation of this new treatment in clinical every day practice is needed.
(24) FOOD: A fundamental principle of research in this area ought to be a focus on the development of a completely new knowledge and innovation platform that supports a long-overdue paradigm shift in the agriculture and food industry value chain.
(32) ENERGY: European energy research should support European political aims, including the preparation and setting-up of a stronger European energy infrastructure. In line with the subsidiary principle, big challenges call for joint European efforts. Energy research conducted at the European level is the appropriate approach to match the challenges and to achieve the critical mass required for big and demanding projects, including research infrastructures and demonstration projects. Stronger national and transnational efforts are needed and require European-scale management and support in order to: (1) enable a decisive contribution to climate protection; (2) achieve European technology leadership; and to (3) give the highest possible support to European industry.
(42) TRANSPORT: REDUCING CONGESTION BY BETTER UTILISATION OF EXISTING CAPACITY AND CHANGED MODAL SPLIT (SMART); TARGETS FOR GHG REDUCTION REQUIRE RADICAL TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES AND FACILITATION OF THEIR MARKET UPTAKE (GREEN); CUSTOMER-ORIENTED CROSS-MODAL INTEGRATION AND RESILIENCE (INTEGRATED); A MORE PRONOUNCED ROLE OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES; EFFICIENT RESEARCH BY STRENGTHENING INTEGRATION OF SCIENTIFIC DOMAINS; A ZERO VISION ON ROAD FATALITIES REQUIRES A PARADIGM SHIFT TO A ’SAFE SYSTEM’ APPROACH;
(55)CLIMATE The research needs required to deal with climate change and other resource issues are varied and at different levels of complexity and ambition. The total set of research needs can be thought of as being assembled in a sort of “knowledge tower.” The base of the tower consists of data collection systems while, at the very top are placed the grand societal experiment testing solutions developed on the basis of research.
(66) SOCIETIES: The Horizon 2020 proposal identi es important societal challenges, to which the social sciences and humanities can contribute. At this point, the structure of the proposal – separating innovation,
inclusion and security – blocks the view to even larger challenges that cut across these issues. Some of the more pressing are:• Cultures of innovation and openness need cultivation at many layers from individual to European. • The welfare state must be reinvented. • Politics is being recreated in new forms. • Divergency and Diversity are rede ning European Unity. • Analyses and policies need to be international.
Who benefits from the actions taken?:
The ERA actors
Keywords:
Geographic scope: