The EUREKA network needs to assert itself 24/03/2025

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the creation of the EUREKA network, at a conference organized by the current joint presidency between Germany and Canada in Bonn, Manuel Heitor encouraged the Eureka network to assert itself and differentiate itself from the European Commission's programs. "We live in times when a global multilateral cooperation instrument like Eureka can have a very important strategic utility - just as it was conceived 40 years ago".

Heitor recalled that the EUREKA network includes partners as interesting as South Africa, Brazil, Chile, South Korea and Singapore, and Canada and India as associate members, in addition to almost all the European Member States. Manuel Heitor encouraged the EUREKA network to “experiment” with new methods of evaluating and funding research and innovation, reducing transaction costs and traditional evaluation times, as well as encouraging a “culture of risk”, assuming “failures as steps towards success”.

"Strengthen, at any cost, EUREKA autonomy and founding principles (as established 40 years ago, in 1985) associated with high added value products and systems for global markets, through multilateral, “bottom-up” collaborative research", he said.

Heitor mentioned five sample examples: SOLINK, advanced video security, from Canada and Turkey; QARTNOT Computing, from Europe, with EIC; Sensor networks for precision pharmaceuticals (includes miniaturized, networked, biodegradable monitoring electronics for Advanced agriculture, with reduced environmental impact, as started in Europe, with applications in South Asia, Africa and Latin America; Predictive maintenance, through STRATIO, in Europe, Singapure and Brazil; and the network ITEA about “Real time smart manufacturing processes”, and  “globally standardised Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture (OPC UA)”, both under the ITEA Cluster on software innovation, with applications in Europe, Türkiye, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

Manuel Heitor highlighted three characteristics of EUREKA networks: oriented towards global markets, through multilateral cooperation; bottom-up, industry led; and focus on high added value products and systems, through collaborative new frontier research.

“In Europe”, he said, “we all need to continuously improve EUREKA networks to escape from the “mid tech trap” identified by Nobel Laureate Jean Tirole and coworkers and to better foster in Europe an effective approach to collaborative research towards high added value products and systems”.

To succeed in the current context, EUREKA must be a worldwide example of independent governance, he argued. “This is important, more than never before in the current geopolitical context, because over the years EUREKA is losing its autonomy as it is becoming more dependent of the EU Framework Programme”.