The most important event of last autumn was the appointment of the new European Commission, under which Ursula von der Leyen was elected its President. At the beginning of September 2019 she proposed her team and the new structure of the Commission for the next term of office 2019 – 2024 (link). Mariya Gabriel was proposed as a Commissioner, whose portfolio encompasses both science and education. Many scientists and a number of organizations – including the PAS – suggested a change of portfolio name (link), which was finally materialized, i.e. Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth (link). After the hearing process, the European Parliament approved new set of commissioners in plenary on November 27, 2019 (link). Already in December Commission unveils ‘A European Green Deal‘ to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent (link).
Strategic planning
At the same time, the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) continued the preparation of the Horizon Europe framework program, including thorough discussions with all Member States under the format of the Shadow Strategic Configuration of the Horizon Europe Programme Committee (Shadow SPC). The basis for various consultations – extended by an additional month, i.e. until October 4th, 2019 – was a document entitled Orientations towards the first Strategic Plan (also published on PolSCA webpage). The Commission’s report on this process (including major findings of the EU Research & Innovation Days event held in September) was published on October 3, 2019 and thus consultations of umbrella organizations were started (link). The final version of this document, which forms the departure point for further work, was published at the end of December 2019 (link).
On this basis, the PolSCA Office will commit to engage the network of PAS institutions in the process of co-design of the Horizon Europe.
In autumn 2019, consultations were also held on the HEU Implementation Strategy, the report of which can be found here. Part of these consultations were regional workshops with the participation of EC representatives. In Poland such a meeting was held on November 20th in Warsaw, and it was co-organized by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the National Contact Point and the Polish Academy of Sciences, i.e. Grant-up Office.
Missions under HEU
In the second half of 2019, intensive work began on identifying specific missions within the 5 pre-defined areas. To this end, the EC appointed a number of experts to form Mission Boards, among them 4 people from Poland:
- Prof. Konrad Rydzyński – Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Łódź; mission area 2 – Cancer,
- Monika Stankiewicz – Helocome (Finland); mission area 3 – Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters ,
- Prof. Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz – Former chair of the Central Bank of Poland, also served as Mayor of Warsaw; mission area 4 – Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities (Chair of the Board),
- Prof. Marta Pogrzeba – Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas (IETU), Katowice; mission area 5 – Soil Health and Food.
In addition, the EC decided to appoint additional bodies, so-called Mission Assemblies, which included 7 Poles:
- Mission area 1 – Adaptation to Climate Change including Societal Transformation:
- Prof. Zbigniew Kundzewicz – Institute for Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań
- Dr Piotr Mysiak – University of Zielona Góra
- Mission area 2 – Cancer:
- Prof. Jacek Jassem – Medical University of Gdansk
- Prof. Rodryg Ramlau – Poznan University of Medical Sciences
- Prof. Agnieszka Sobczak-Kupiec – Cracow University of Technology
- Mission area 3 – Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters:
- Dr Klara Ramm – Veolia Energia Polska, Warsaw
- Mission area 5 – Soil health and Food:
- Dr Anna Krzywoszyńska – University of Sheffield
Professor Jassem and prof. Kundzewicz were supported by the Polish Academy of Sciences and the PolSCA Office, especially at the application preparation stage and by collecting letters of support for these candidates. Regional offices in Brussels, respectively – of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the Wielkopolska Voivodeship were also involved in this activity.
A full list of Board and Assembly members is available here.
In the last quarter of last year, the Mission Boards held several meetings and initiated the process of identifying relevant topics through so-called scoping and foresight. In December 2019, the EC announced that the time give to Bards in order to complete this process has been extended by mid-2020. Their’s work should now strengthen citizen engagement, continuous cooperation with Member States and members of Assemblies. This information was presented by Neville Reeve during the IGLO Open meeting hosted by the PolSCA Office in January 2020.
