The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy adopted the report by Maria da Graça CARVALHO (EPP, PT) on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the participation of the Union in the European Partnership on Metrology
jointly undertaken by several Member States.
The Partnership aims to accelerate Europe's global leadership in metrology research by establishing autonomous European metrology networks to support and stimulate new innovative products, address societal challenges and enable the effective design and implementation of regulations and standards that underpin public policies.
The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:
Participation
Members would like to make it clear that the States participating in the European Partnership must respect academic freedom, in particular the freedom to undertake scientific research, and promote the highest standards of scientific integrity.
Objective
The Metrology Partnership should implement its mission and objectives in a clear, simple and flexible way. In particular, it should:
- ensure appropriate collaboration with other European Partnerships and other relevant initiatives, taking into account technological development in areas such as digitalisation and artificial intelligence, as well as civil society services, from smart health to circular economy to autonomous traffic management;
- promote and reward scientific excellence and support the uptake and systematic use of research and innovation results generated within the EU;
- strive to ensure that the results of its actions are taken up and deployed by the industry, innovators and, ultimately, in society;
- actively collaborate with academic institutions to fill the skills gap, establish skilling and re-skilling training opportunities and prepare the next generation of workers to meet the needs of the labour market that arise from the green and digital transitions;
- ensure the effective promotion of equal opportunities for all and pay particular attention to ensuring, to the extent possible, gender balance in all partnership bodies;
- increase the visibility of calls for proposals, publish them in a timely manner in the Horizon database and promote them to increase participation, geographical diversity and the involvement of new market entrants, such as start-ups and SMEs;
- enhance dialogue with society, engage in awareness-raising campaigns and promote education and dissemination activities with the participation of academic, scientific and knowledge networks, social and economic partners, media, industry, SME organisations and other stakeholders.
Alignment and synergies
According to Members, synergies and complementarities should be possible:
- with the Union's strategic priorities, in particular those related to the European Green Deal and the European Data Strategy;
- with all relevant programmes and funds, both regional (ERDF, ESF+, EAFRD) and those under the Recovery and Resilience Facility which can also be used to complement national contributions;
- with other European Partnerships in the Horizon Europe pillar and joint undertakings, missions and instruments.
All activities funded by the European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET) would be subject to the Horizon Europe rules on participation, open science and dissemination.
Steering Group
The Steering Group is an advisory body to the Metrology Partnership and should give advice to the Partnership on emerging metrology research priorities at European level.
Members proposed that the Steering Group should have 18 members, including 6 representatives of the European scientific community, appointed by the Commission through an open and transparent process.
All recommendations of the steering group should be made public.
The European Parliament should invite the Commission to present the evaluation reports and other relevant information on the activities of the Metrology Partnership to the relevant committee.