Commission weighs reform of its big R&D partnership projects

In a draft paper obtained by Science|Business, Commission staff write that the EU’s big multi-partner R&D projects – such as the ECSEL Joint Undertaking for the micro-electronics industry – have been dogged by cash-flow and other financial problems stemming from their complex structure. The paper, for a Brussels meeting on the topic planned for 5 November, says the Commission wants to discuss some possible reforms with the member states that co-fund the projects.

The issue affects thousands of companies, universities and other organisations that participate in these projects. The ECSEL project, for instance, had more than €1.9 billion in budget for its first three years, from 2014-2016. Its mission, to develop new technologies that boost the competitiveness of Europe’s semiconductor and components industries, involves the participation of more than 1,000 companies. Yet a 2017 review of the project cited several administrative problems stemming, not from the project management itself, but from the basic set-up.

One key problem is cash flow. These so-called Joint Undertakings are run under two specific articles of the European treaties that permit the Commission to set up organisations to manage money from several funders at once – itself, the member states, and others.

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