The Commission presented its annual progress report on
the activities of the Joint Technology Initiative Joint
Undertakings (JTI JUs) in 2012.
The Joint Technology Initiatives are public-private partnerships in industrial research
at European level that are now well established and have reached
cruising speed. They were set up in 2007-2008 under the Seventh
Framework Programme in five strategic
areas: (1) Aeronautics and Air Transport (Clean Sky); (2) Public
health - Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) JU; (3)
Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) JU; (4) Embedded
Computing Systems (ARTEMIS) JU; (5)
Nanoelectronics (ENIAC) JU.
Participation and geographical
coverage: JUs are successful in
funding highly specific, industry-driven research and that
stakeholders are getting more acquainted with the modus operandi
of these new instruments. Participation in terms of numbers of
projects selected for funding remained stable in the last two years
while the overall success rate increased from 35.8 % in 2011 to
45 % in 2012. Concerning industrial participation in 2012,
large companies represented 31.1% of total participations and SMEs
another 30%. SMEs participation increased from 28% to 30% in
the last two years (2011 and 2012).
In terms of distribution of participation from Member
States and Associated Countries, in 2012 as in the previous year
the five JTI JUs involved, on average, 20 different
countries in the implementation of their research
agendas.
First results and promising advances: the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) is
supporting a project, currently in patenting stage, which
successfully developed a device and protocol related to the
possibility to quickly diagnose (less than half an hour) what kind
of infection and what treatment is needed for patients. The focus
of this project has been put on the European Lead Factory and the
antimicrobial resistance programme New Drugs for Bad
Bugs.
Success stories are as
follows:
- the EUROPAIN project has
made important findings that contribute to a better understanding
of the mechanisms of chronic pain;
- the SUMMIT project is
developing methods to identify risk factors for chronic
complications in diabetes patients, that lead to strokes or
problems with the heart,
- kidneys or eyes, impose an immense burden on the
patients’ quality of life and account for more than 10% of
health-care costs in Europe;
- the MARCAR project has
developed and proved the effectiveness of methods that help
identify chemical changes in the genetic material (chromosomes)
that are related to cancer (non-genotoxic
carcinogenesis).
Challenges and perspectives: for the future, a number of challenges remain
open:
- relatively small size of the JUs and their relatively high running costs is still a
major challenge;
- maintaining the level of commitment from Industry and
Members States: certain difficulties
have arisen in recent years in matching funds from industry and
Member States and only in 2012 did the trend reverse;
- effectively integrating results achieved in research
projects into the Commission communication and dissemination
system: the JUs will probably be
called upon under Horizon 2020 to adopt tools and working
arrangements that will enable all parties involved to constantly
assess results and to use them.
To summarise the experience gained in the first
years of autonomy of all the Joint Undertakings, the following
successful results can be highlighted:
- JTIs are continuing at a steady pace to reach their objectives in research and
beyond;
- in terms of management, the JTI JUs have gained
speed. In 2012, they generally reduced their Time to Grant
(TtG), which is now 11.6 months on average;
- the visibility of JTI JU activities was also
enhanced in 2012, among stakeholders and beyond;
- the JTI JUs’ achievements started to be monitored
and evaluated against a set of key performance indicators
(KPIs);
- SMEs are attracted to
the JTI JUs’ research topics,
especially because of the stability and continuity of the research
and innovation environments, the funding arrangements and the
involvement of larger value chains. Overall, SMEs have received
about EUR 170 million, which accounts for roughly 27% of all
EU funding available after evaluation;
- industry commitment to
the achievement of general objectives remained stable and overall
stakeholder participation continues to be well balanced following
major updates in 2011;
- the JTI JUs strategic research and innovation
agendas now include a more ambitious approach towards
innovation, in line with Horizon 2020;
- lastly, respondents especially highlighted the clear
European added value of PPPs in specific technological
sectors.
Another interesting insight on progress achieved so
far will be provided by the second interim evaluation, which will
cover the period from setting up until 2013 and will be published
as a separate report by November 2013.