2015 Lund Declaration tackles societal changes

December 18 2015

The recent high-level conference “Lund Revisited: Next steps in tackling societal challenges” which took place on 4-5 December 2015 in Lund, took stock of the progress made since the 2009 Lund Declaration that prepared the way for Horizon 2020.

One of the conference’s central outcomes was a new 2015 Lund Declaration with recommendations for further advancement. The declaration focuses on four main priorities: Alignment, Frontier research, Global cooperation and Impact.

The first priority calls for a greater alignment of strategies, instruments, resources and actors at national and European level to address societal challenges. This call for alignment is grounded in the second priority, that is excellent basic research, world-class research infrastructure and a new generation of scientists with matching skill sets. Thirdly, the Declaration stresses that Europe needs to connect with partners in advanced, emerging and developing countries. Finally, greater impact must be achieved by involving the public sector and industry in knowledge production.

The 2015 Lund Declaration is seen as an important first step in starting the discussion on the next framework programme. EUA particularly welcomed the Declaration’s emphasis on increasing investments in frontier research and strengthening open science, including open access to research publications and data. “The revisited Lund Declaration, Commissioner Moedas’ support to open science and the support to open access by the upcoming Dutch Presidency of the EU will presumably speed up the transition to a better open access publishing system”, underlined Lidia Borrell-Damian, Director for Research and Innovation at EUA. “Universities are already making good efforts in improving their performance”, she continues, “but developing incentives and ensuring stable long-term funding perspectives for the university sector are prerequisites for boosting competitiveness and growth in Europe now and after the end of Horizon 2020.”

The 2015 Lund Declaration was prepared in consultation with diverse stakeholders, including EUA, who provided input through its Research Policy Working Group (RPWG). Please consult the Background Paper to the Lund Declaration 2015 for further information.

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