October 2018

Roadmap for EU - USA S&T cooperation

1. USA AS A PARTNER OF THE EU The United States of America (US) is a long standing partner of the European Union, relations being formalised

in 1990 with the adoption of the Transatlantic Declaration. Following the 2007 US-EU Summit, a Declaration on

Enhancing Transatlantic Economic Integration and Growth laid the foundation for a growth-driven dialogue.

Since then, the Transatlantic Economic Council has become an important forum for economic dialogue between

the EU and the US. The European Union and the United States have the largest bilateral trade relationship and

enjoy the most integrated economic relationship in the world.

[Latest EU-USA Summit]

The statement by EU and US leaders following the EU-US Summit in March 2014, underlined a commitment of

the parties "to expand cooperation in research, innovation and new emerging technologies, and protection of

intellectual property rights as strong drivers for increased trade and future economic growth". In this context

specific references were made to space cooperation, the Transatlantic Ocean Research Alliance and the

GPS/Galileo agreement. Equally prominent in that section were references to the Transatlantic Economic Council

to “continue its work to improve cooperation in emerging sectors, specifically e-mobility, e-health and activities

under the Innovation Action Partnership”.

Other important references were made to the EU-US Energy Council, where the partners “remain committed to

close cooperation on energy research and innovation in areas including energy efficiency, smart and resilient

energy grids and storage, advanced materials including critical materials for safe and sustainable energy supply,

nuclear energy and interoperability of standards for electric vehicles and smart grid technologies”, as well as

“knowledge-sharing on carbon capture and storage, and on the sustainable development of unconventional

energy resources”.

[EU-USA non-S&T cooperation agreements]

Euratom and the United States signed a bilateral cooperation Agreement on fusion energy research in 2001 and

the ITER Agreement in 2006. In fission research, Euratom signed a Technical Exchange and Cooperation

Arrangement on Nuclear Technology research with the US Department of Energy (2003) and another one on

Nuclear Safety research with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (2009). Both sides are members of the

inter-governmental multilateral agreement Generation IV International Forum (GIF) on research for the next

generation of nuclear reactors. Bilateral energy research cooperation is framed under the US-EU Energy Council,

in particular within the Working Group II on Technology, Research and Development, while as members of the

Mission Innovation initiative both sides and the other partner countries are aiming to strengthen and accelerate

global clean energy innovation.

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[EU-USA S&T cooperation agreements]

Research and innovation cooperation between the EU and the US is governed by the Agreement for Scientific

and Technological Cooperation, which entered into force in 1998. The EU-US S&T cooperation agreement was

renewed for an additional five years in October 2018 and is now valid until 14 October 2023. The Joint

Consultative Group (JCG) which oversees this cooperation agreement last met in October 2017.

[R&I landscape in USA]

The United States is still leader in top-class science, technology but also innovation. However, indicators such as business

innovation surveys and productivity growth suggest that the US lead is narrowing in spite of its world-class universities and

very large global technology companies. R&D and patenting by businesses have also grown less rapidly.

The US federal investment in research and development (R&D) largely stagnated after 2010, with recent years

seeing a gradual recovery to pre-crisis levels. US business however has maintained its commitment to invest in

R&D, particularly in growing, high opportunity sectors. Gross domestic expenditure on research and development

(GERD) is rising and the share performed by the business enterprise sector stays close to 60%.

Throughout a large country like the US certain States like California or Massachusetts play a dominant role in

the overall global scientific impact of the country. Interestingly, while the United States is the current world

leader in R&D, other countries are catching up and the gap to the followers is shrinking.

The US provides innovation-friendly framework conditions and its investment climate makes it an attractive

place to commercialize innovative products, services and solutions. In addition, the US has one of the world’s

strongest legal systems for the protection of intellectual property rights.

The U.S has established a global network of scientific cooperation and is also a privileged partner country for

many EU Member States in science, technology or innovation cooperation.

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Figure 1: Expenditures in Research & Development and researchers per million inhabitants

2. State of play of EU-USA S&T cooperation

2.1. On-going FP7 and Horizon 2020 cooperation

EU-US scientific cooperation takes place under the auspices of the Joint Consultative Group, the EU-US Space

Dialogue, the Transatlantic Ocean Research Alliance, the Energy Council and the Transatlantic Economic Council.

Based on the work of the Joint Consultative Group (JCG), established under the EU-US S&T agreement,

cooperation on research and innovation with the United States is addressing some priority areas:

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− Marine and Arctic Research

The US has enormous research capabilities in marine and Arctic research. The National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the largest organisation of its kind in the world with an annual budget of

more than US$ 5 billion; in 2012 the JRC signed an Implementing Arrangement on scientific cooperation with

NOAA renewed in 2017. The US has access to important waters and territories (including the Arctic). Since the

signing of the Galway Statement in May 2013 and the launch of the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance

cooperation continues to gather momentum and global international recognition. NOAA who had been tasked by

the Department of State to coordinate the implementation of the Galway Statement on the US side has closely

coordinated the US activities with other agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National

Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In spite of its formal bilateral genesis (EU-US and EU-Canada), to

all intents and purposes, in the past years the cooperation has become effectively trilateral. The goals are to

better understand the Atlantic Ocean and to promote the sustainable management of its resources. Specific

elements of Horizon 2020 have been designed to advance the Galway Statement implementation. To date, the

EU has invested €140 million of Horizon 2020 funding towards the implementation of the Galway Statement

through Blue Growth calls for proposals. The various Trilateral EU-US-Canada working groups have delivered

excellent results on various cooperation areas (seabed mapping, observing systems, aquaculture, ocean literacy,

ocean health and stressors).

The years 2015-2017 were extremely positive for the international scientific cooperation in the Arctic as a

whole. The Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance was instrumental to prepare for the first Arctic Science Ministerial

and engaged strongly to support the second Arctic Science Ministerial in 2018. Both sides improved greatly the

alignment of funding priorities and programmes between the EU and the US. The European Commission is

continuing and even stepping up the investments in Arctic research and innovation, with an expected average

investment of more than 20 million Euro per year for the last three years of Horizon 2020.

− Bioeconomy

Bioeconomy is a strategic priority in Research and Innovation for the US and for the EU. In the Bioeconomy area,

the EU is launching the International Bioeconomy Forum (IBF). The aim of IBF is to provide a flexible multilateral

approach for international cooperation, capable of adapting to emerging global needs. This new initiative could

support EU-US cooperation on a number of key R&I activities and horizontal activities in the Bioeconomy area.

− Research Infrastructures

Cooperation between the US and European Research Infrastructures is well consolidated. US is involved in the

activities of CERN and other major European initiatives such as Common Language Resources and Technology

Infrastructure (CLARIN ERIC), and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, both identified as Landmarks on

the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap.

Research Infrastructures is one of the dimensions that contribute significantly to the marine and Arctic

cooperation with the United States. Shared use of RIs (in the context of already agreed aligned research

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priorities and synchronised or complementary projects) is an emerging topic in the general context of the

Transatlantic Ocean Research Alliance.

− Health research

The US is the EU's main partner when it comes to health research either in terms of numbers of US

participations in the Framework Programme (both FP7 & Horizon 2020) projects. Most cooperation with the US

is via the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) but also with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and outside

government such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The EU as well as the NIH mutually opened the

respective health research programmes to US and European scientists.

The EU and US cooperate very well in many multi-lateral initiatives. Some examples are the International Rare

Disease Research Consortium (www.irdirc.org), the International Initiative for Traumatic Brain Injury

(http://intbir.nih.gov/), the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Diseases Preparedness (www.glopid-r.org),

the Global Alliance of Chronic Diseases (www.gacd.org) and the Global Tuberculosis Vaccine Partnership. Both

the US and the EU have strong capacities and a common vision on how to tackle the most important health

problems. Moreover, both EU and US are members of the Human Frontier Science Programme (www.hfsp.org).

All these areas represent the basis for continuing and extending cooperation in the future.

− Transportation Research (including Aviation)

The main purpose of the EU-US collaboration in surface transport research is to address global societal

challenges and to pursue international standardisation requirements. Mutual benefit, joint priority setting, co-

funding and critical mass through programme level cooperation are the underlying features. This EU-US

cooperation has been growing steadily in recent years. In 2013, the US and EU signed an Implementing

Arrangement (February 2013), covering Cooperative Activities in the Field of Research, Development,

Technology, and Innovation Applied to all Modes of Transport. A steering group has been established to

implement the agreement. Cooperation areas include transport infrastructure, traffic management, road safety,

urban freight logistics and others. An important result of the Implementing Agreement was the organisation of

regular yearly EU-US Transportation Research Symposia. Synchronized calls for proposals were identified as a

preferred cooperation modality, combining focus and flexibility.

While cooperation tends to be more visible and effective at programme level, stimulating bottom-up project

participation is an important element in EU-US "twinning" cooperation. Such twinning is made possible by

collaboration between DG MOVE and DG RTD and US Department of Transport.

A milestone in EU-US transport cooperation was the launch of the Interoperability Centres for smart grids and e-

vehicles by the Joint Research Centre and the US Department of Energy, followed by cooperation established

under the auspices of the Transatlantic Economic Council.

In Aviation the supply chain is transatlantic so that new global rules and standards could be better advanced

jointly. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) collaborates with the European Aviation Safety Agency

(EASA) including activities for rulemaking and certification. As an example joint flight test campaigns took place

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between the US (FAA, NASA) and the EU in the safety critical domain of High-Altitude-Ice-Crystals, with 39

partners from 16 countries.

− Nanosafety and regulatory research / materials research

In nano safety and regulatory research, cooperation with the US is of special importance and is implemented

through the Communities of Research. The Communities of Research were formed by groups of people, sharing

a significant interest in the field of nanosafety and interacting regularly to advance that interest. They

developed a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, tools, protocols, ways of addressing recurring questions

and challenges to overcome research gaps and barriers and to enhance their professional relationships.

The EU promotes government-level cooperation in the OECD working party on manufactured nano-materials (in

particular through the NanoReg initiative, started already under FP7 and followed by further activities in H2020).

A reinforcement of EU-US raw materials cooperation took place via the signing of an Implementing Arrangement

between DG JRC and the US Geological Survey. Specifically, the cooperation will cover Earth Sciences, Climate

and Land Use Change, Ecosystems, Energy and Minerals, Environmental Health, Natural Hazards and Water.

Figure 2: Participation of the United States in Horizon 2020

Up to October 2017, U.S. entities have participated 1115 times to 845 signed grants of Horizon 2020, receiving

36.7 million euros of direct EU contribution while 107.0 million euros is the non-EU budget of U.S. beneficiaries.

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Regarding collaborative actions1 of Horizon 2020, U.S. applicants are involved 1397 times in 1088 eligible

proposals of which 226 were mainlisted, leading to a success rate of 20.8% (as compared to 17.5% for non-

associated countries and 15.8% overall). U.S. entities have 246 participations (214 times as beneficiaries) in

182 signed grants, receiving 34.0 million euros from EU while 107.0 million euros is the non-EU budget of U.S.

beneficiaries.

Regarding the Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), U.S. entities have participated 853 times

(403 in Individual Fellowships (IF), 259 in the RISE, 167 in the ITN and 24 in the COFUND programme). US

beneficiaries have received 0.2 million euros as direct EU financial contribution. Finally, a total of 390 U.S.

researchers have participated in MSCA actions.

For what concerns support to frontier research, US entities have participated 16 times to signed ERC grants of

Horizon 2020, receiving 2.5 million euros from EU. The US is the country of nationality of the highest number of

ERC non-ERA grantees, amounting to a total of 141 US nationals in Horizon 2020 up to October 2018.

The Implementing Agreement between EC and the US National Science Foundation was signed on 13 July 2012

and a total of 46 scientists of US nationality have visited ERC project teams so far.

With regard to fission research cooperation, nine US entities participated in ten fission projects under the

Euratom FP7 research programme focusing on various aspects of radiation protection, severe accident

management and radioactive waste management. Presently six entities participate in six projects under the

Euratom Programme, complementing Horizon 2020 focusing on the history of nuclear energy, education and

training, materials, innovative small modular nuclear reactors, emergency preparedness and emergency

response and core monitoring techniques.

The cooperation in the field of fusion research encompasses around 315 ongoing collaborative activities,

involving 27 US research institutions and 19 European fusion labs under the bilateral Fusion Cooperation

Agreement legal framework, aimed at supporting ITER and long-term DEMO developments.

2.2. Current framework conditions for EU-USA S&T cooperation

The general framework conditions for EU-US cooperation are improving over various Framework Programmes

and the EU and the US have since several years agreed on a reciprocal opening like for example in the area of

health research.

US participants will continue to be eligible to receive EU funding in projects funded through the Horizon 2020

Health societal challenge, reflecting the reciprocal funding offered to EU participants by the NIH.

While cooperation modes tend to become more visible and effective at programme level, bottom up project

participation is also a strong feature in our EU-US cooperation. Specific attention was given in the last years

1 i.e. excluding projects under ERC, MSCA, SME Instrument and Access to Risk Finance

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(2016-2017) to improving the general framework conditions for EU-US collaboration and eliminating existing

barriers in order to ensure that the scale and scope of EU-US ST&I cooperation can reach its full potential.

In October 2016 an Implementing Arrangement between the EU and the U.S. was signed to facilitate

cooperation between US organisations and Horizon 2020 participants in cases where the US organisations are

funded by the US and do not receive any funding from the Horizon 2020 programme. It simplifies cooperation

between a selected Horizon 2020 project and a US entity by enabling researchers to organise their cooperation

outside the formal Horizon 2020 Grant Agreement signed for each project, although at the same time remaining

in full respect of it.

In addition since February 2017 a new and simplified partner category has been introduced into the Horizon

2020 Model Grant Agreement, called "International Partners" in expanding the "third party" type participation for

legal entities established in a non-associated third country not eligible for funding. The EU has hence codified

into the Horizon 2020 Grant Agreement the basic idea of the EU-US Implementing Arrangement.

Despite some challenges to more systematically integrate US entities in Horizon 2020 consortia the US remains

the leading 3rd country participant in Horizon 2020 (both in participation and funding). It has benefited in the

recent years from the 'US pilot National Contact Point' – The National Council of University Research

Administrators (NCURA).

3. PRIORITIES FOR THE FUTURE IN S&T COOPERATION

3.1. Areas of future S&T cooperation agreed at latest Joint Committee/High Level

Dialogues

The cooperation priorities for the years to come should be in line with the existing ones. Health research and

cooperation with NIH will be a key area due to the mutual opening of the respective programmes and the level

of engagement will be as in the first years of Horizon 2020.

In the area of transport research there is a clear interest in continuing collaborating in areas where inter-

operability is necessary to ensure smooth and secure transatlantic/global flows. In the years to come US

scientists will find specific calls inviting in particular US cooperation in the areas of:

Automated driving and road automation in general

Air quality and low-emission freight transport systems

Multi-modal inter-urban transport

EU-US cooperation on energy technology research and innovation continues to be promoted under the EU-US

Energy Council and its Technology Working Group but with the Mission Innovation initiative further cooperation is

expected.. Horizon 2020 has put a strong emphasis on clean energy research and innovation in Horizon 2020

compared to previous Research Framework Programmes. Indeed, there is strong potential for EU-US cooperation

as follow up of the Mission Innovation initiative with both sides and all involved partner countries aiming to

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strengthen and accelerate global clean energy innovation with the objective to make clean energy widely

affordable. Related research, development and demonstration issues are expected to become a major driver to

focus the cooperation between the EU and US in the years to come.

The area of marine and Arctic cooperation is expected to further expand as implementation of the Galway

Statement is taking shape. The type of activities could be more programme level cooperation in form of

programme alignment with relevant US partners like NSF, NASA and in particular NOAA. New calls are lined up in

the last work programmes (2018-2020) of Horizon 2020, with an All Atlantic ambition. The G7 initiative 'The

Future of Seas and Oceans' will be supported by a major call for proposals of 18 million € EU funding matching

investment form G7 counties and other global partners.

Horizon 2020 finances a coordination and support action supporting microbiome coordination and the

International Bio-economy Forum that is particularly suitable for coordination with the US research funding

agencies in particular considering the microbiome-related research and programmes existing in the US.

The vast majority of topics comprised in the Focus Area 'Building a low-carbon, climate-resilient future'

encourages international cooperation. Some topics are generally encouraging international cooperation; others

are specifically mentioning major emitters. Despite its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, it is hoped that the

United States research community will still be able to a certain extent to continue the excellent cooperation, e.g.

in the area of Integrated Assessment Modelling

Nanosafety research issues are of global nature and international collaboration in this area will be crucial for

potential calls to come (2018-2020) under the Horizon 2020 programme. Engaging mutually (EU&US) in

international S&T cooperation is essential to strengthen the attractiveness and economic and industrial

competitiveness and to tackle global societal challenges. Future research projects under Horizon 2020 in this

area are most likely expected to collaborate with similar projects under the established scheme of Communities

of Research with the USA National Nanotechnology Initiate programme , and/or to include direct participation

of relevant US entities. In addition, participation is expected from countries actively involved in the work of OECD

-WPMN, the NanoSafety Cluster and the NANoREG project.

Synthetic Biology is another important field of science that is rapidly establishing itself and for which the

adoption of standards can have an impact in its industrial applications. In recent years DG Research and

Innovation jointly with the Directorate of Biological Sciences of the US National Science Foundation work to

identify common pre-competitive research areas where the United States and the EU could benefit from in the

short-medium term. For example standardisation issues related to synthetic biology are of interest to both sides

and may be suited for upcoming cooperation under Horizon 2020.

Fusion energy is one of the four priority areas agreed to expand under the EU-US Energy Council. The bilateral

cooperation in the field of nuclear fission energy research cooperation will continue to focus on nuclear safety

as the highest priority.

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3.2. Potential new areas of future S&T cooperation proposed at latest Joint

Committee/High Level Dialogue, through SFIC, or by thematic services

Collaboration between Europe and the United States in the domain of Research Infrastructures is considered as highly strategic especially in the frame of consolidating the support to the Transatlantic Ocean Research Alliance. Increased cooperation on marine and Arctic Research Infrastructures (interoperability, data management, better use and access, funding strategy, innovation and links with industry) is planned.

The International Cooperation Flagship "Safer and greener aviation in a smaller world" counts for major

allocation of funding in the aviation activities of the WP 2018-20. Topics dedicated to multilateral international

cooperation including US, are: "hybrid-electric propulsion" for 2019 – of major interest from US companies;

"high-speed aviation" for 2020 – in line with NASA activities on civil supersonics.

Following the 2016 Information Society Dialogue and a specific workshop organised with the US National

Science Foundation in 2017, it was intended that EU-US research collaboration in the area of Future Internet

and Advanced Wireless Platforms should be further developed on issues of common interest and of strategic

importance.

In the neurosciences, the difficulty of the challenges requires greater scale and efficiency through enhanced

coordination and cooperation across the globe. The EU is very keen to take part in a global effort in

neurosciences, building on our strong EU-US researchers' community, and on the various initiatives we launched

in the last years.

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ANNEX:

UPCOMING HORIZON 2020 WORK PROGRAMME 2018-20 TOPICS EXPLICITLY ENCOURAGING COOPERATION WITH THE US

Topic identifier Topic title (click topic name to follow link)

2019

ICT-31-2019 EU-US collaboration on NGI

INFRAIA-01-2019 Integrating Activities for Advanced Communities

DT-ART-03-2019 Human centred design for the new driver role in highly automated

vehicles

DT-ART-04-2019 Developing and testing shared, connected and cooperative automated

vehicle fleets in urban areas for the mobility of all

DT-NMBP-12-

2019

Sustainable Nano-Fabrication (CSA)

DT-SPACE-06-EO-

2019

International Cooperation Copernicus – Designing EO downstream

applications with international partners

ICT-06-2019 Unconventional Nanoelectronics

LC-CLA-07-2019 The changing cryosphere: uncertainties, risks and opportunities

LC-MG-1-9-2019 Upgrading transport infrastructure in order to monitor noise and

emissions

MG-2-9-2019 Integrated multimodal, low-emission freight transport systems and

logistics (Inco Flagship)

NMBP-15-2019 Safe by design, from science to regulation: metrics and main sectors

(RIA)

BG-07-2019-20 G7 initiative 'The Future of Seas and Oceans'

SU-SPACE-22-

SEC-2019

Space Weather

2020

LC-SC3-RES-3-

2020

International Cooperation with USA on alternative renewable fuels for

energy and transport

MG-3-05-2020 Towards a high-speed global air transportation demonstration

NMBP-17-2020 Regulatory science for medical technology products (RIA)

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Figure 3: United States – Top scientific areas compared to EU28 in terms of citation impact

of publications

Source: DG Research and Innovation – International Cooperation Data: Elsevier SciVal; extraction date: 6/8/2017; publications' window: 2011-2013; citations' window: 3 years Note: These tables show scientific areas in which the country's academic publications have a higher citation impact than EU28, and whether this difference has decreased, increased or remained the same in the past 8 years. They are grouped in two tables. The top table focuses on areas with high share of publications in the country's total output of publications and the bottom table on those with low share of publications. Scientific areas are based on Elsevier 'All Science Journal Classification'. For each area, the country's share in the world output of publications and the share of international co-publications are also shown.

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Figure 4: United States – Specialisation compared to EU28 in selected technologies based

on PCT patents

Source: DG Research and Innovation – International Cooperation Data: OECD (top table) WIPO (bottom table); extraction date: 6/8/2017 Note: The top table shows the relative specialisation of the 2014 PCT patent output of the country with respect to EU28, calculated as (# of patents of country in technology X / # of patents of country in all technologies) / (# of patents of EU28 in technology X / # of patents of EU28 in all technologies). It also shows whether the relative specialisation has increased, decreased or remained the same in the past 8 years. The selected technologies are classified based on the OECD database. The bottom table shows the same information for the top-13 technologies with the highest specialisation index with respect to EU28 - this time the technology classification is based on the WIPO database. Both tables also show the country's and EU28 total number of PCT patents under

each technology in 2014.