Changing Governance Architecture of the European Research Area

This paper applies ‘governance architecture’ framework (Borras and Radaelli 2011) to analyze the major relaunch of the European Research Area (ERA) in 2012. The ERA was launched in 2000. The Lisbon Treaty coming into force in 2009 provided its treaty basis. The Article 179 of the treaty states that ‘The Union shall have the objective of strengthening its scientific bases by achieving a European research area in which researchers, scientific knowledge and technology circulate freely’ and the Article 185(2) allows for the adoption of measures necessary for the implementation of the ERA. Since its establishment in 2000, the ERA has undergone a number of important changes (see e.g. Chou 2012, 2014; Tamtik 2016; Ulnicane 2015, 2016). While a number of studies have addressed the emergence and initial development of the ERA, this paper analyzes its less researched recent transformation with a particular focus on the ERA’s relaunch in 2012 which largely define the ERA today. The 2012 reform agenda brought some of the key characteristics of the contemporary ERA such as consolidation of its aims in five priorities (i.e. more effective national research systems, optimal transnational cooperation and competition, an open labour market for researchers, gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research, and optimal circulation, access to and transfer of scientific knowledge), the establishment of stakeholder forum and regular progress reports. This paper argues that the ERA can be analyzed as a governance architecture. It is a long-term ambitious political initiative and has three features of governance architecture outlined by Borras and Radaelli (2011), namely, strategic, holistic, cross-cutting, long-term problem-definition; goals and output-oriented targets in different dimensions of the strategic problem; and combinations of new and old organizational arrangements at different levels, set up for the specific fulfilment of the strategic goals. Recent changes in the ERA are studied according to the main components of the governance architecture: ideational components of ideational repertoire and discourse and organizational components of political and organizational machinery and policy instruments. Better understanding of changing governance of the ERA is of great importance as research and innovation are increasingly seen as crucial for the EU’s economic growth, social development and global competitiveness. The paper draws on a number of data sources including 27 interviews with policymakers from EU and national institutions and representatives of European research stakeholder organizations as well as analysis of relevant policy documents and reports.