Support to confirmed Presidency events (conferences) – Malta, United Kingdom, Estonia

Topic description

Specific Challenge:

Events of major strategic nature, well focused and with the participation of a broad spectrum of stakeholders are of outmost importance for assessing past activities, identifying policy options and priorities, and planning future actions within the areas covered by Societal Challenge 5. Examples are events organised together with successive EU Presidencies, such as PROVIA in the Netherlands and the Innovative Enterprise Presidency conference on Circular Economy Financing in Luxembourg.

Actions should contribute to creating better synergy between initiatives launched by the Commission and by the Member States, to the benefit of the overall coherence of actions within the field of research and innovation in the areas covered by Societal Challenge 5. Member States which will hold a forthcoming Presidency of the European Union and are in the time range of this Work Programme are Malta and the United Kingdom in 2017 and Estonia in 2018, and they may be particularly interested in this topic. The flagship event addressing transition to the green economy planned under the Presidency of the Slovak Republic in 2016 is covered under topic SC5-24-2016.

Proposals should address issues of major relevance at the time of the events. Innovation should be at the core of the event. An appropriate balance should be present in the proposed action(s), encompassing environmental, economic and social elements and points of view. Participation of non-EU actors is possible. Outreach activities may be included, such as a press programme or events dedicated to the wider public or schools. To avoid limiting the impact of these events, the subject of each event should not overlap with that of other Presidency events over the period 2016-2018.

The commitment of the national authorities to support the event(s) both from a political point of view and with resources is a pre-requisite to submit a proposal. Proposals should be supported by the competent Minister, evidenced in a letter included in the proposal. In order to ensure high political and strategic relevance, the active involvement of the competent national authority/authorities will be positively reflected in the evaluation under the ‘impact’ criterion.

In agreement with the Commission services, projects should ensure appropriate flexibility so as to respond in real time to potentially fast-changing policy scenarios.

2016: Proposals should address Presidency event(s) in Malta.

2017: Proposals should address Presidency event(s) in the United Kingdom or Estonia.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 0.10 million and EUR 0.30 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately, depending on the size of the event (number of participants). Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. No more than one action will be funded for each Presidency (possibly covering more than one event).

The action is expected to result in:

• improved visibility, in particular in the hosting country, of the areas covered by Societal Challenge 5;
• identification of policy options and priorities via review and assessment of developments, and sharing of information and comparison of points of views;
• efficient networking of various stakeholders and supporting their activities, e.g. natural scientists, social scientists, researchers, industrialists, investors, local authorities, environmentalists, museums and schools.