Published on | 3 days ago
Programmes Horizon Europe Digital Europe EDFBecause Europe’s productivity has been lagging behind compared to other major economies over the last 20 years, the European Commission intends to take urgent action to revive Europe’s competitiveness.
The aim of the compass is to make business easier and faster and ensure Europe’s prosperity. The compass guides the Commission’s work for the 2024-2029 period on the basis of three pillars:
There will be a massive push towards innovation. New measures aimed at taking the lead in strategic tech sectors – such as AI, semiconductor and quantum technologies, advanced materials, biotech, clean energy technologies, robotics, space, connected and autonomous mobility – should enable Europe to strengthen both its technological sovereignty and its competitiveness. These are all topics that (mostly) relate to call topics in the Cluster 4 programme and Digital Europe.
As well, in order to decarbonise the economy efficiently, there will be increased focus on a clean industrial deal and industrial decarbonisation, complemented with an affordable energy action plan, an electification action plan and a switch to even more reuse of resources. These topics can be found back in Horizon Europe in Clusters 4 and 5.
Finally the compass underlines both trade as a key driver of EU prosperity and the need for the EU to diversify, strengthen and ensure the resilience of its supply chains. The EC aims to sign and implement additional trade agreements as well as clean trade and investment partnerships to help secure the supply of critical raw materials, clean energy, sustainable transport fuels and clean technologies from across the world. Aditionally, there is a need for further cooperation between member states in defence by increasingly resorting to joint procurement and joint research and development, as well as by pooling resources.
The Competitiveness Compass will become a guiding document for the coming decade. This will trickle down in the upcoming Work Programmes of Horizon Europe, Digital Europe and te European Defence Fund (and their follow-up programmes).
Rather than remaining reactive, you can take the lead by taking the Compass into account when building or reviewing your own internal roadmaps. Understanding the ongoing work at the policy level is important. It's maybe that little thing that can help you to have an extra tick on the evaluaton scale. Some possibilities:
And clearly, NCP Flanders remains your ideal partner for further news on this topic, as we cover some of the main financing instruments mentioned in the Compass.
This article is very short and vulgarising. If you want to read up on the details and related (policy) documents.
We offer news and event updates, covering all domains and topics of Horizon Europe, Digital Europe & EDF (and occasionally, for ongoing projects, Horizon 2020).
Stay informed about what matters to you.
By signing up, you can opt in for e-mail notifications and get access to
a personalised dashboard that groups all news updates and event announcements in your domain(s).
Only for stakeholders located in Flanders
Digital, Industry & Space Climate, Energy, Mobility Agro-Food, Environment
The Clean Industrial Deal is described as "a bold business plan to support the competitiveness and resilience of our industry." It aims to boost production in green industries, with special focus on energy-intensive industries - vital for European material production and decarbonization goals. 6 main elements The Deal presents measures to boost e... read more
Security Digital, Industry & Space Digital Europe
In Digital Europe, knowledge of the underlying EU policies and legislations is a key element when drafting a proposal, as they play an important role in the “relevance” evaluation criterion. Also for Horizon Europe Cluster 3 (Cybersecurity) and Cluster 4 (Digital), this knowledge can be handy for applicants. To support... read more
The Miricle project, ‘Mine Risk Clearance for Europe’, obtained funding under the European Defence Industrial Development programme call ‘Underwater control contributing to resilience at sea’. The main objective of the project was to achieve a European and sovereign capacity in future mine warfare and create a path for the next generation ‘made in Europe’ countermeasure solutions. In order to realise this objective, Miricle addressed various stages: studies, design, prototyping and testing. These stages inter alia included the successful testing of an XL Unmanned Underwater Vehicle, a protototyped mine disposal system and multiple innovative systems to detect buried mines. Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), was one of the five Belgian partners in the consortium. Within the project, VLIZ was able to forward its research on the acoustic imaging of the seabed to spatially map and visualize buried structures and objects - in this case buried mines - in the highest possible detail. VLIZ also led the work on ‘Port and Offshore Testing’, building on the expertise of the institute in the field of marine operations and technology.