EC Work Programme: Polish Presidency 2011

I know the blog's been a bit eurocentric recently, but hell, that's the way le petit gateau sec crumbles. Anyway, UKRO are reporting what the EC's got lined up for the Polish presidency (ppt) in 2012. Hmm. Not relevant to us, surely? Au contraire. See, there's a few research-related dates you should be aware of:

• 27 Sept 2011: a Communication on 'Partnering in Research and Innovation'. Not sure what this will be, but perhaps it will give us a clue as to how the EC wants business and academia to collaborate in the future.
• 30 Nov 2011: full proposal for Horizon 2020, including necessary legislation, specific programmes, and rules of participation;
• Dec 2011: a Communication on developments in the area of access to scientific information. Open Access ahoy!
• 5-7 Dec 2011: Innovation Convention, and report on progress towards an Innovation Union.

Looking further forward, in 2012 we've got these policy gems to look forward to:

• ERA Framework, which as UKRO understands, will include a large scale public consultation (this was originally planned for late 2011 but has been put back due to the development on Horizon 2020).
• Communication on enhancing and focussing international cooperation in Research and Innovation
• Communication on the state of implementation of the Innovation Union and mainstreaming of innovation in EU policies
• Recommendation to Member States on Structural changes in universities and research in institutions to promote gender equality
• Communication on the establishment of a new Europe 2020 headline indicator to monitor progress in innovation.

Finally, it will be pushing forward on its Joint Programming Initiatives. As I'm sure I don't need to tell you, the aim of these is 'to pool national research efforts in order to make better use of Europe's precious public R&D resources and to tackle common European challenges more effectively in a few key areas.' And what are those few key areas? I'm glad you asked. UKRO's sources say that they are:

• More years, better lives (already launched in July 2011)
• Water challenges for a changing world
• Healthy and productive seas and oceans
• Climate change
• Antimicrobial resistance (Planned for 3rd quarter 2011)
• Urban Europe (Planned for 4th quarter 2011)