On 2 October 2024, the Research Matters campaign of leading R&I organisations and European industry organised an event ‘Invest in the future’ in Brussels, calling for increased investment in research and development in Europe as a way of addressing current & future geopolitical and societal challenges, with relevant stakeholders.
At the event, Enrico Letta, former Italian Prime Minister and author of the recently published report ‘Much more than a market’ on the future of the single market, presented his view on European R&I, the need to create a “fifth freedom” dedicated to research, innovation, knowledge and education and why it is necessary to radically step up the investments in the EU’s next budget. Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council (ERC), showcased the benefits of frontier research and innovation for our societies and Christian Ehler, Member of the European Parliament, talked about the importance of R&I investments at national and EU levels, in particular for the next framework programme for research and innovation, FP10. The view of the industry was presented by Pascal Metivier, Head of Research and Innovation at Syensqo, a Belgian multinational materials company founded in 2023 as a spin-off from Solvay.