As part of the discussions during last week’s meeting of EU countries’ science ministers in Brussels, the Competitiveness Council has issued a set of conclusions on the subject of international co-operation within Horizon 2020.

 The Competitiveness Council calls on the European Commission, member states and key stakeholders:

 to develop common principles on issues such as responsible research and innovation, research integrity; peer review; promotion of gender equality and the gender dimension in research and innovation; researcher careers; fair and equitable treatment of IP; and open access to publicly funded research publications and to research infrastructures;

 Acknowledging the crucial importance of international research collaboration, the conclusions emphasise that the European Commission should ‘systematically consider where international co-operation can add strategic value in implementing Horizon 2020 and could play a particularly valuable role in the Horizon 2020 work programmes’. The Council also invites the Commission, working closely with EU Member States, to identify priorities for international co-operation on the basis of Horizon 2020 and of the results of FP7 projects.

 The conclusions also underline the importance of preparing ‘multi-annual roadmaps for co-operation with the EU’s strategic partners, which will identify priorities and instruments for activities within Horizon 2020 for international co-operation on research and innovation’. The Council also states that Member States must be involved from an early stage in this process, and calls on the Commission to present the first roadmaps by the end of 2013.

 http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/intm/137346.pdf