Widening Actions in Horizon Europe

In preparation of the upcoming Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, the European Commission has published a report titled “Review of Issues Related to Methods, Criteria and Indicators for Widening Actions“. The report provides recommendations for selection of criteria and indicators that might be used to define targets for future “Widening Actions” designed to address inequality in research and innovation performance across EU Member States.

The assessment indicates that there are advantages and disadvantages to all potential indicators and that no single indicator adequately captures all aspects of the research and innovation process. Existing composite indicators could be adopted, but there are disadvantages in terms of complexity, timeliness and the ease with which these indicators can be reproduced. An alternative approach to combining indicators is proposed based on “filtering” Member States using their ranking on three selected variables:

• Economic status – GDP per head
• Research performance – % of scientific publications in the top 10% citations
• Innovation performance – Number of PCT Patent applications per million population

The report recommends that the Commission considers further the merits of a “filtering” approach based on the three shortlisted variables. Click HERE to access the report.