What is the European Research Area?
The European Research Area (ERA), launched in 2000, is a system that connects scientific research across Europe. Its goal is to make it easier for researchers, ideas, and technologies to move freely, helping Europe to be more innovative and competitive. Since 2021, the ERA has been revitalised with the adoption of the Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe as the foundation for the new ERA and its governance framework. In the context of the first ERA Policy Agenda (2022-2024), the European Commission initiated the new ERA Monitoring Mechanism (EMM), which allows for evidence-informed policymaking.
Setting a baseline for ERA monitoring
As part of the new EMM, the baseline ERA monitoring reports were needed to set the ground for the comprehensive assessment of the progress made towards implementing the new ERA Policy Agenda. The team of Ecorys, Carsa, UNU-MERIT, NEBS, and Visionary Analytics was entrusted with this task by DG RTD in a recently completed project. The goal of the project was to develop the ERA Scoreboard, Dashboard, and regular reports, which provide a qualitative and quantitative overview of the state of play of each ERA Policy Agenda Action both at the EU and country level. These reports can be found online on the European Research Area Platform (see here).
Methodological improvements to the EMM
The main contribution of Visionary Analytics was the development of methodological suggestions for improvements to the ERA Scoreboard and Dashboard (see the final report here). As this was the first monitoring cycle of the new ERA, the set of Scoreboard and Dashboard indicators had to be created from scratch, which raised some challenges. To detect these challenges and identify potential improvements, our researchers utilised desk research and feedback from ERA stakeholders and the monitoring study team collected via survey and online workshop. The main detected challenge was the availability of data for the new indicators, which led to the exploration of alternative indicators or data sources.
In addition to the report on methods, Visionary Analytics also took part in the preparation of country-level reports, aimed at overviewing the implementation of the ERA Policy Agenda in EU Member States and associated countries and the effects of ERA on the national Research and Innovation (R&I) systems. Specifically, we prepared country reports for Lithuania, Austria, and Georgia.
Progress in implementation of the ERA Policy Agenda
The 2023 ERA monitoring cycle revealed that the new ERA Policy Agenda is in full implementation mode: several outcomes of ERA Actions have already been achieved, and some ERA Actions have even been completed. However, the ERA Scoreboard and Dashboard show that there are some disparities in progress between the different ERA priorities. Overall, there has been substantial positive change in R&D investments, gender equality, and global engagement priorities, whereas researchers’ careers and mobility, knowledge valorisation, and citizen engagement in R&I have shown a slower positive change. Lastly, indicators show limited positive change in scientific leadership, challenge-based ERA actions, and investments and reforms in lower-performing regions.
