Regina Valutytė, Lithuania’s vice-minister for education, science and sport. Photo credits: Bernal Revert/ BR&U

Regina Valutytė, Lithuania’s vice-minister for education, science and sport, has suggested other EU countries follow Lithuania’s lead and launch schemes to fund researchers who are unsuccessful in applying for EU grants.

Valutytė spoke to Science|Business on the sidelines of a European Commission event held on October 1 to mark 30 years of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), the EU’s doctoral and postdoctoral researcher training scheme.

Both the MSCA and the European Research Council (ERC), the two main basic research funding schemes under Horizon Europe, have seen a sharp increase in applications and a corresponding fall in success rates in recent years.

In response, the research community is calling for a substantial increase in funding, but its hopes were dealt a fresh blow last week when the Irish presidency of the EU Council proposed cutting the Horizon Europe budget by 9.6% relative to the European Commission’s proposal.

The declining success rates are “worrying,” said Valutytė, who cited Horizon Europe’s growing visibility and the use of artificial intelligence as key factors behind the surge in applications. “Research and science need more money if you want to have better results and compete better,” she said.

Asked whether anything can be done to alleviate this strain on success rates beyond more money, Valutytė pointed to Lithuania’s experience in using national funds to support applicants to the MSCA and the ERC who received a positive evaluation but failed to secure funding.

“I think that we should think of the schemes more broadly in the next financial period, so that countries can contribute from their national resources, too,” she said.

Lithuania has been something of a pioneer in the EU when it comes to using national funds to support applicants who received the Seal of Excellence, a quality label awarded to Horizon Europe proposals that score highly but go unfunded due to budgetary constraints, and transferring money from EU regional funds to Horizon Europe projects.

“We find it to have additional value, since we already know that those applications were evaluated by European experts,” Valutytė said. “We can be sure that these are the ideas that will change life for the better in Lithuania, and these researchers will not have to go through any additional national administrative burden.”

The EU’s research and innovation systems are facing significant budgetary challenges at the same time as heightened global competition. “Everybody has responsibility” to push for a larger budget, Valutytė said. “But we should also think of how we could use the money that is allocated more effectively, how our researchers could engage in the research from a perspective they’ve never sought before.” 

One way to do that could be to allow beneficiaries to pursue both civil and military applications of their research. “Dual use allows us to take another approach, and to think of the final result of the research from different angles,” she said. “I think this would be more efficient.”

Lithuania was one of eight countries to have signed a joint statement in September urging the European Parliament and the Commission to support dual-use research in the next Horizon Europe programme.

Upcoming trilogues

Dual use is likely to be one of the key issues discussed during upcoming trilogue negotiations between the Parliament, Council and Commission. The governance of collaborative research calls in Horizon Europe’s Pillar 2 will be another point of contention.

Commission plans to reform the Widening scheme for countries with less well-developed research systems, to create a new category of transition countries, were also subject to debate in the Council and could therefore come up again during trilogues, Valutytė noted.

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The vice-minister hopes the current Irish presidency will be able to begin the trilogues, so that Lithuania can take over in January and conclude them by next summer.

“We understand very clearly that the new programme should start in 2028. So, we have a very huge responsibility in having quality and effective trilogues,” she said.

Earlier that day, Valutytė met with Parliament’s Horizon Europe rapporteur Christian Ehler, and Lithuania has also been meeting with stakeholders and coordinating with the Irish presidency as it prepares to take the reins, she said.

Parliament is currently expected to adopt its negotiating position in November after a committee vote was delayed.

The Council has already reached a partial agreement, but this does not include certain provisions related to the Widening and to excellence as the main criterion for evaluating proposals, as these are part of cross-cutting talks on the overall EU budget.

Parliament’s stance is that Horizon Europe trilogues cannot begin until EU governments have a full position on the programme. Whether or not official talks can begin before the end of the year will therefore depend on how quickly governments can strike a deal on the budget. So far, opposing camps within the Council have showed little sign of budging.

Top-down calls in the MSCA

During the MSCA conference, several speakers emphasised the need to avoid “directionality” in the basic research scheme, which until now has left the choice of research topics up to applicants.

The Commission’s Horizon Europe proposal stipulates that, “if specific needs arise, the MSCA may target certain activities in specific thematic priorities, types of research and innovation institutions, or geographical locations.”

Both the Council in its partial agreement, and the European Parliament in its draft report that is yet to be adopted, maintained the possibility of thematic priorities, but only if additional funding becomes available.

“During the discussions within the Council, nobody expressed a doubt about the impact of MSCA and the value that it creates. This is why there are no big changes proposed in the actions themselves,” Valutytė said.

“All the countries support a bottom-up approach, so I think that’s fundamental, and this is the rationale behind curiosity-driven research,” she added. “But, of course, there is room left within the programme to have also a top-down approach when it’s needed.”

She offered the example of crises such as Covid, where “we had to react very, very quickly and to present research-based solutions.”