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AGENZIA PER LA PROMOZIONE DELLA RICERCA EUROPEA

APRE

The first and unique entity of its type in Italy, APRE – Agency for the Promotion of European Research, operates in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Research with the objective of supporting and promoting Italian participation in the European Union research and innovation (R&I) programmes, by providing information, training and assistance services.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Henriette Van Eijl (Head of Unit Research and Innovation)

21 Jan 2026 · Introductory meeting. Exchange on: • Horizon Europe implementation • Role of national contact points

Meeting with Carole Mancel-Blanchard (Head of Unit Research and Innovation)

21 Jan 2026 · Exchange of views on APRE activities and on international R&I policy developments.

Meeting with Eva Maria Szavuj (Head of Unit Research and Innovation)

21 Jan 2026 · Introductory meeting to discuss about the activities carried by APRE and by Unit RTD.A1.

Meeting with Massimiliano Esposito (Head of Unit Research and Innovation) and BUSINESSEUROPE and

12 Nov 2025 · Horizon Europe 2028-2034

Meeting with Massimiliano Esposito (Head of Unit Research and Innovation)

23 Jul 2025 · Horizon Europe 2028-2034

Meeting with Giorgio Chiarion Casoni (Director Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs)

28 May 2025 · Exchange of views on the APRE and the Italian National Contact point of Horizon Europe activities and R&I in the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)

Meeting with Pauline Rouch (Director Research and Innovation)

14 May 2025 · An introductory meeting with APRE to discuss next EU’s long-term budget and future APRE events.

Meeting with Elena Donazzan (Member of the European Parliament)

5 Mar 2025 · Ricerca e innovazione, Horizon e FP10

Meeting with Massimiliano Esposito (Head of Unit Research and Innovation)

5 Mar 2025 · Exchange of views on R&I policy and funding for research and innovation

Meeting with Giorgio Gori (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Mar 2025 · Assessment of Horizon Europe and priorities for the next FP10

Meeting with Beatrice Covassi (Member of the European Parliament)

24 Jan 2024 · Education and Scientific Research

Meeting with Markus Schulte (Cabinet of Commissioner Iliana Ivanova)

21 Nov 2023 · Research and Innovation Policy, Horizon Europe, APRE Report

Meeting with Jean-Eric Paquet (Director-General Research and Innovation)

12 Oct 2021 · Horizon Europe - APRE Annual conference

Response to Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe

13 May 2021

Research and Innovation are key drivers to steer Europe’s recovery, preparedness and resilience, and accelerate the twin green and digital transitions. The launch of Horizon Europe and the plan to revive a «new European Research Area for research and innovation» offers the opportunity to reflect once again on the vital role that R&I plays for the EU’s future prosperity and well-being. APRE supports the adoption of a Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe as an instrument to achieve the new ERA’s ambitions, aimed to set out commonly agreed values and principles and indicate the areas where Member States will jointly develop priority actions. In particular, we would like to contribute to the Commission and Member States’ work with the following messages: - We reconfirm our full support to values and principles concerning the ERA (freedom of scientific research, mobility of researchers, ethics and integrity, gender equality, open science, etc.) and broadly agree with the proposed priority areas for future action (e.g. careers of researchers, Research Infrastructures). In this regard, APRE particularly appreciates the Commission’s intention to make the Pact an opportunity to raise awareness on these principles and priorities, and promote their implementation and mainstreaming at national level. While fully supporting the objective to assemble principles and priorities in one legal act, APRE shares the concerns expressed by a wide range of R&I stakeholders regarding the risk of ineffectiveness inherent in the non-binding nature of the Pact (i.e. Council Recommendation). - The EU public and private investment in R&D is at 2.19% of GDP (2018), still far from the 3% target set out in the Europe 2020 strategy, and EU public effort to support R&D is still too low (0.81% of GDP). R&I investments and policy reforms towards the EU’s priorities should be prioritised at European, national and regional level, in line with the National Recovery and Resilience Plans and the European Semester country-specific recommendations. The Pact for R&I in Europe shall effectively reaffirm the 3% EU GDP R&D investment target and also invite Member States to commit to raising their public R&D efforts to 1.25% of GDP by 2030 in an EU coordinated manner, as set out in the Commission Communication of 30 September 2020. In particular, strengthening the European dimension of R&I investment is key to contribute to achieving the 3% targets: this could be favoured i.a. by progressively increasing the EU’s Framework Programme budget and further reinforcing the R&I component of the Cohesion Policy dedicated to interregional activities. - The EU Framework Programme, the most important instrument at EU level for supporting and implementing the ERA, has progressively ensured to balance EU funding over the R&I ecosystem, covering well the whole value chain. In line with the spirit of Horizon Europe, the new ERA should reflect this comprehensive approach, encompassing the full range of R&I activities from fundamental to applied research and innovation. APRE agrees with the need to strengthen the innovation dimension of the Pact by mirroring in its values and principles the expectations of the entire R&I stakeholder community. - The full involvement of R&I stakeholders in the ERA governance and in the development of the Pact for R&I in Europe is key to the success of the overall relaunch of the European Research Area. As correctly noted, in the past ERA as a strategy has been hindered by a lack of awareness of its existence in the European R&I communities. Therefore, APRE invites the Commission to enhance the transparency of the ongoing process and guarantee an inclusive, regular and structured dialogue with the whole R&I community. As effectively pointed out, as the new ERA relies on the implementation of priorities at national levels, this dialogue should fully involve also national organisations and take place in parallel in each Member State.
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Response to Communication on the Global Approach to Research, Innovation, Education and Youth

8 Apr 2021

APRE supports the Commission’s intention to revise and revamp the current strategy for international cooperation on research and innovation between Europe and the rest of the world. We would like to contribute to the Commission’s work with the following messages: - International cooperation in research and innovation based on common scientific, technological and cultural expertise needs to be further incentivised as an instrument to both strengthen the EU’s excellence in R&I and attractiveness of world talents, and to tackle global challenges – with a particular emphasis on the green and digital transitions - in line with the 2030 Agenda’s SDGs and the Paris Agreement. In this respect, APRE fully supports the approach of general openness to third countries' participation maintained in Horizon Europe. - The concept of Open Strategic Autonomy is a new driver for the EU policy framework and needs to be appropriately reflected in the R&I dimension. APRE agrees with the need to safeguard EU’s interests while ensuring a level playing field for European actors at international level. R&I collaboration – especially when involving our global competitors – shall consider the Union's interests and independence, mutual benefits, competition-related aspects, international commitments, science diplomacy and reciprocity. In this regard, APRE recognises Horizon Europe’s new rules on the limitation of the participation as a proportional option to guarantee the protection of the EU’s strategic interests. At the same time, we invite the Commission to further clarify, within the Horizon Europe Programme Committee, the criteria to implement those provisions at the Work Programme level. - The decision to overcome the criterion of geographical proximity for third countries associated to Horizon Europe – proposed by the Commission and confirmed by the negotiations – is an important step in the direction of strengthening the EU‘s sphere of influence and fostering the projection of European values towards the rest of the world. APRE strongly welcomes the conclusion of the association agreement with the UK and invites the Commission to further follow-up on this provision and reinforce its commitment to finalise the association agreements with like-minded countries, e.g. Canada, Japan, Singapore. While recognising the confidentiality of the ongoing discussions, APRE encourages the Commission to guarantee the appropriate transparency of the negotiating process, also regarding the parts of the Programme that will be excluded from the association agreement with a specific country. - New opportunities to reinforce partnerships with different regions of the world, starting from those close to Europe, offer the chance to tackle global challenges, take practical action to sustain a shared recovery, and to finally set the direction of a clear Science Diplomacy agenda. In this regard, the new R&I Global Approach shall strengthen its focus on the Mediterranean neighbourhood and other regions further afield, including Africa, with the aim to connect cultures and develop strong bases for collaboration and development. - The leading role taken by the European Commission in supporting the global response to COVID-19 both through multilateral platforms and Horizon 2020 projects should be adequately recognised and highlighted as a best practice for EU’s Science Diplomacy future initiatives. Also, targeted calls and earmarked resources, specifically dedicated to international cooperation, should continue to be modulated within the different areas based on relevance and common interest. -EU-funded networks and platforms specifically aimed at fostering international cooperation and promoting the participation of third countries in the Framework Programme had demonstrated to be highly successful in FP7 and during the first years of Horizon 2020. APRE invites the Commission to reconsider the opportunity to re-fund such platforms.
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Meeting with Jean-Eric Paquet (Director-General Research and Innovation)

19 Oct 2020 · Keynote speech at annual event

Meeting with Giulia Del Brenna (Cabinet of Commissioner Carlos Moedas)

29 May 2018 · Presentation of APRE

Meeting with Roberto Viola (Director-General Communications Networks, Content and Technology)

11 Jul 2017 · new FET flagships