ESIR is a high-level expert group that provides evidence-based policy advice to the European Commission on how to develop a forward-looking and transformative research and innovation policy. This will help drive Europe's transition to full sustainability. In this publication, the ESIR group provides advice on a powerful transformative European research and innovation policy in support of the Covid-19 crisis recovery. The group's recommendations explore how to prepare and transform our economic and societal systems to become more resilient to future crises.
ESIR is a high-level expert group that provides evidence-based policy advice to the European Commission on how to develop a forward-looking and transformative research and innovation policy. This will help drive Europe's transition to full sustainability. In this publication, ESIR offers guidance on how a 'protect-prepare-transform' approach can ensure fast learning from innovation by relying on smart and coherent policies, collaborative efforts across levels of government and decentralisation of governance, and most importantly the courage to direct research and innovation at the transformations Europe is facing.
This ESIR Focus Paper provides a 'deeper dive' into the role of European Universities in achieving systemic change in the post-pandemic economy and society. It builds on and complements ESIR's second Policy Brief, which offers guidance on how a 'protect-prepare-transform' approach in the post-pandemic Europe can ensure fast learning from innovation by relying on smart and coherent policies, collaborative efforts across levels of government and decentralisation of governance, and most importantly the courage to direct research and innovation at the transformations Europe is facing.
This ESIR Focus Paper provides a 'deeper dive' into the role of nations, regions and cities as vectors for systemic change in the post-pandemic economy and society. It builds on and complements ESIR's second Policy Brief, which offers guidance on how a 'protect-prepare-transform' approach in the post-pandemic Europe can ensure fast learning from innovation by relying on smart and coherent policies, collaborative efforts across levels of government and decentralisation of governance, and most importantly the courage to direct research and innovation at the transformations Europe is facing.
This ESIR Focus Paper provides a 'deeper dive' into the question of how we can protect, prepare, and transform EU industry and harness innovation to make global value chains more resilient. It builds on and complements ESIR's second Policy Brief, which offers guidance on how a 'protect-prepare-transform' approach in the post-pandemic Europe concrete and practical solutions on what the green and digital transitions would mean for the industry sector and global value chains, including recognising the trade-offs and tensions between the transitions.
Europe faces a triple imperative to protect, prepare and transform in its quest for building forward better after the deadliest pandemic of the past century and for building forward better to address the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced - climate change and biodiversity collapse. An enormous challenge: how to transform human life quickly enough to enable 8 billion people to live sustainably and peacefully within planetary boundaries? While Europe cannot face this challenge alone, we believe it can lead the global community towards the deep systemic transformation that this and next decades will inevitably require. We think that Europe will only be able to achieve this leadership if it will at once strengthen its internal cohesion and capacity to speak with one single voice; and promote a deep transformation of the economy at the global level.
The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the European Union yet also spurred an unprecedented level of cooperation and joint decision making. The EU and its Member States rallied to meet the challenges of the global health threat with a jointly procured vaccine, a jointly funded economic recovery package and a jointly supported public borrowing programme. As a result, 2 years later the economy has begun to recover and the EU is ready to consider its next steps in crisis management and planning. A triple transition of climate, digital and social change will dictate the EU's overall strategy in coming years. Policymakers have an opportunity to set the Union on a path toward growth and prosperity, but if they are not careful they also could set the stage for entrenched inequality and disagreement. Continuing with longstanding policies also poses a danger, given the need for change to meet the challenges ahead. The EU will have a chance to set a course along one of three main scenarios: Business as Usual, Fragmentation and Conflict, or a New Era. Under the first option, the EU does not adapt as needed to protect the environment or give its population the skills they need to survive in a digital world, and the EU falls further behind its international counterparts. In the second scenario, EU policies actively unravel the alliances and economic programmes that have taken so long to build, with corresponding threats to political and economic stability. But the EU also has a better option: pursuing policies that will lead to a New Era within the single market and around the world.
