Professoriliitto
The Finnish Union of University Professors is a trade union that acts in the interests of university professors and professors in research institutions.
ID: 718837941901-32
Lobbying Activity
Response to A New European Innovation Agenda
10 May 2022
Innovation is critical to secure the EU’s strategic autonomy and long-term prosperity. It is necessary to enable innovation in rapidly evolving fields and bridge the innovation divide between the EU and the US.
A successful innovation ecosystem rests on several pillars such as a world-leading university system, academic freedom, mobility, access to angel funding and venture capital, and beneficial regulation.
The European Innovation Agenda should increase the global competitiveness of EU research universities and help them attract the most talented researchers. This requires patient capital in the form of long-term public and private university funding, tenure, good employment conditions, institutional autonomy and academic freedom, and an excellent research infrastructure. To create globally leading hubs of innovation, the EU should distinguish between two kinds of higher education institutions under a dual model. Research universities should focus on the attainment of excellence in research and research-based education. Other higher education institutions could help to ensure inclusion and the attainment of a broader range of EU-level objectives. The Commission’s European Strategy for Universities “recognises excellence and inclusion as a distinctive feature of European higher education”. These two objectives cannot fully be reached without the existence of different kinds of higher education institutions with different objectives. Moreover, sustainable systemic change will not be achieved without focusing on the interests of researchers and research universities.
To increase innovation, it should be made easier for university researchers to develop the commercial potential of their research. This requires many things. First, it requires long-termism such as patient research funding, long-term employment, and academic freedom. Second, to develop the commercial potential of university research, it is vital for researchers to remain holders of their intellectual property rights. Third, it is a fundamental component of freedom of research that researchers have a right to decide whether to make their own research data open. There is a risk that requirements relating to open access to research data and the dilution of researchers’ intellectual property rights can compromise the commercial potential of university research in many areas.
When researchers have a chance to focus on excellent research and are holders of their own intellectual property rights, it is easier for them to move from academia to the private sector or from one university to another. Such mobility will make a researcher career more attractive and increase research mobility between academia and the private sector.
There is a scale-up financing gap that should be addressed. The fact that the EU lacks behind the US in venture capital was recognised as a problem in the European Commission’s Capital Markets Union (CMU) action plan. Unfortunately, the CMU action plan and the regulation of EU capital markets seem to foster the interests of financial intermediaries such as institutional investors rather than the interests of growth firms. From the perspective of growth firms that tend to start small, the raising of funding may be constrained by a large regulatory framework designed to create a level playing field for large firms and financial intermediaries. To improve the innovation ecosystem for growth firms in particular, the main focus should be on the interests of researchers, entrepreneurs and growth firms rather than the interests of financial intermediaries. This may require the creation of alternatives to venture capital and the use of regulatory sandboxes to limit the scope of the standard regulatory framework. The use of regulatory sandboxes could help to address the financing gap.
Read full responseResponse to European Strategy for Universities
17 Nov 2021
The Finnish Union of University Professors welcomes the Commission’s initiative on a European Strategy for Universities.
Universities and the public science system in general are “a cornerstone of excellence for Europe’s prosperity”, as was pointed by the Commission in its Communication “A new ERA for Research and Innovation”. The multiple objectives of the EU laid down by Article 3 TEU will not be reached without strong universities and a strong public science system.
Unfortunately, the progress of universities and the public science system in Europe is not satisfactory. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the EU and its Member States to prevail in scientific and economic competition against other major blocks. The unsatisfactory performance of Member States’ universities in global university rankings indicates that there is a problem, because globally leading clusters of science and innovation tend to be built around globally leading research universities. The digitalisation of society can be expected to increase the polarisation of universities and cement the position of globally leading universities.
While actions expressly mentioned in Articles 165(2) and 179—181 TFEU can be useful for the attainment of the multiple objectives of the EU, overreliance on policies that do not increase the academic excellence of European research universities should be avoided. For example, it is doubtful whether overreliance on alliances, harmonisation, digitalisation, open science, open education, and open data can turn more European universities into global leaders. Moreover, while the commitment to developing a more inclusive, innovative, inter-connected and resilient EHEA as stated in the Rome Ministerial Communique is to be welcomed, the route to improving the excellence of research universities remains unclear.
A clearer vision of excellence is required for research universities. It should be based on several principles. First, academic freedom and institutional autonomy must be protected as fundamental values. Second, only long-term employment contracts and the security of employment for researchers and teachers can contribute to excellent long-term results. Third, to increase innovation and the agility of Member States’ universities, the diversity of institutions must be respected as set out in Article 165(1) TFEU and the intellectual property rights of university researchers and teachers must be respected as a fundamental right. Fourth, in the light of the long-term societal benefits of public research universities, their basic funding must be sufficient, public, long-term, allocated to a large extent to research and protected against short-term political opportunism. Where complementary public funding is allocated on a competitive basis, funding decisions must be based on scientific excellence and scientific integrity. Fifth, more must be done to ensure that Member States bring R&D investment to 3.0% of GDP. Sixth, to increase the inclusion of Member States’ higher education systems, research universities that focus on excellence must be complemented by other HE institutions that can provide high-quality education to larger student pools. Seventh, education-related actions under Article 165(2) and research-related actions under Articles 179—181 TFEU must not compromise academic freedom, institutional autonomy and the reaching of the multiple goals of the EU through the excellence of research universities.
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