The Conference on the Future of Europe provides European citizens with a unique opportunity to reflect and discuss European challenges and priorities. It is a bottom-up, citizen-centered exercise that allows European citizens to express their views on what they expect from the European Union. The Joint Declaration states that the EU will achieve green and digital change, ensure a fair, sustainable and competitive economy, and address geopolitical challenges in the global environment after COVID 19 should provide an integrated answer to generation-specific tasks.

Research and innovation have proven to be key factors in addressing these challenges, so the issue of R & I is becoming more and more prominent on the EU’s policy agenda. Europe’s Next Generation EU stimulus mobilizes critical resources to support R & I activities. 2021 also marks the beginning of Horizon Europe, the most ambitious EU R & I program in history, with a budget of € 95.5 billion over seven years. Despite their central role, research and innovation are not among the selected focus topics of the Conference on the Future of Europe