A new QCEA briefing paper addresses the questions which arise from the proposals for the EU research programme for the security agenda, ethics and participation of third countries. What is important for QCEA in examining these proposals in details is the question of how the funding is to be used, the extent to which this contributes to peacebuilding or not, the extent to which it is driven by the narrow agenda of the defence industry and the extent to which the European Union remains in control of participation in the programme by actors whose activities may undermine the values and legal obligations of the European Union.

We believe that the proposals for Horizon 2020 – though they show some degree of improvement over the
Research Framework Programme 7 (FP7) – still fall short of our expectations on all these points.

Read “Horizon 2020 – Reflecting on Changes Proposed for the New EU Research Agenda” (PDF – 197 KB)