One of the European Union¡¯s top policymakers has warned universities that the bloc¡¯s research priority is now tackling current-day economic and environmental challenges rather than funding curiosity-driven enquiry.

Jean-Eric Paquet, director general of the European Commission¡¯s Research and Innovation Directorate, told university leaders in Paris: ¡°This is not business as usual.¡±

The EU¡¯s next €100?billion (?86?billion) research and innovation package, Horizon Europe, should replace the current Horizon 2020 deal from 2021.

To the concern of some universities, plans have tilted away from curiosity-driven research towards backing ideas that aim to create immediate real-world impact, like a new European Innovation Council, which Brussels hopes will give European start-ups the financial muscle to compete with US and Chinese rivals.

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Speaking at the annual conference of the European University Association, Mr Paquet said that asking ¡°what research delivers for our societies¡± was ¡°very much the direction of research policy¡±.

There was now a ¡°consensus¡± that European research should focus on delivering the United Nations¡¯ Sustainable Development Goals, he said, a checklist of 17 aims including protecting biodiversity, making society fairer, and weaning the economy off burning through natural resources.

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Horizon Europe will fund clusters of research into overlapping challenges ¨C climate, energy and transport, for example ¨C that need ¡°cross-cutting¡± policies, he explained. ¡°Solutions in any of these three fields require obviously to be anchored in solutions in the other two,¡± he said.

¡°This is not business as usual,¡± he said. ¡°This is not the same groups of experts, or groups of stakeholders¡­from one framework programme to the other.¡±

¡°With the cross-cutting approach, things will be very different,¡± Mr Paquet added.

But he was keen to reassure university heads that traditional pillars of blue-sky research would remain a part of Horizon Europe, and were working well. ¡°No worries, the European Research Council is still there,¡± he said, referring to a funder seen as giving researchers sizeable freedom and budgets to explore cutting-edge topics.

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Mr Paquet also criticised universities for being ¡°much too complacent about the innovation divide in Europe¡±, referring to the gap between richer countries in the west of Europe and more peripheral ones in the east and south.

david.matthews@timeshighereducation.com