A group of European research and education organisations have expressed their ¡°great concern¡± over plans to take funds from the Horizon 2020 budget to provide money for a strategic investment fund.

The European University Association, League of European Research Universities and Science Europe are among five organisations to issue a joint statement to oppose the move proposed by the European Commission that will see €2.7 billion (?2.02 billion) cut from its flagship research and innovation programme.

In a separate statement Leru says that cuts to the budget of the European Research Council and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grants scheme ¨C both parts of Horizon 2020 - are ¡°unjustifiable¡±.

The new president of the EC, Jean-Claude Juncker has called for the creation of a €315 billion European Fund for Strategic Investment to boost public and private investment in the continent¡¯s economy over the next three years.

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Under current proposals being discussed in Brussels, some funding will come from the budget of Horizon 2020, the biggest European Union research and innovation programme worth €80 billion (?61.3 billion) in funding over the next six years.

The joint statement says ¡°deviating funds from such a pan-EU research and innovation programme¡± to create funds for such a project ¡°does not make sense¡±.

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Any cuts to the budget will weaken Horizon 2020, it says. The regulations surrounding the strategic investment fund ¡°offer little reassurance¡± that projects funded under it will support research and innovation activities, it adds.

In a separate statement Leru describes the decision as ¡°short sighted¡±. ¡°Investments in ERC-type¡­research are proven to lead to longer-term and larger positive spill-overs to the economy than government investments in innovation,¡± it says.

The EC has said that the strategic investment fund will direct investments to research, but Leru argues that this will not be the case in the short term.

¡°It¡¯s highly likely that these investments will be in applied and close-to-market research and development, not in ERC-type¡­research,¡± it says. The ERC typically funds blue skies research.

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Signatories of the joint statement also include the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research and EARTO, an association of European research and technology organisations.

holly.else@tesglobal.com