Between May 22nd and 23rd 2018, the periodic BHO meeting was organized in Brussels by the EC. During this meeting the following topics were discussed:
Scientific Visa
The deadline for national transposition of the “new Scientific Visa" (Directive 2016/801) was the 23rd of May 2018. State of transposition can be found here.
Key features improved in regards to the original Scientific Visa (Directive 2005/71):
- Facilitating arrival:
- 90 days limit to process application.
- Right for family reunification. Family members also have access to work market. Procedures should be done in parallel (researcher can know if family can come at the same time).
- Depending on the Member State (MS), hosting agreement may not be mandatory anymore. A work contract would suffice.
- Enhancing rights during stay:
- Increased mobility rights (+ 6 months to go to another MS while in Europe, with only a notification). This applies even for MS which have not transposed the directive yet.
- Equal treatment rights: researchers should be treated the same as research nationals.
- Increasing retention rates:
- Researchers can stay in the territory of the MS for 9 months to seek new positions or launch a business.
- If PhD candidates are considered students in the host country (depends on the MS), a change of contract after PhD may involve paperwork, but never the need to go back to home country for a new visa request.
- Officially, it should provide access to unemployment benefits (like any other national researcher).
EU Presidencies
EU Presidency of Bulgaria (January-June 2018; https://eu2018bg.bg/) has focused in:
- Innovation
- FP9 preparation
- Widening countries, including a better integration into the Framework Programmes
- Young researchers
EU Presidency of Austria (July-December 2018; https://www.eu2018.at/) will focus on:
- Multiannual financial framework
- Reinforcing Horizon Europe (FP9)
- Final steps of Brexit
- Consequences of EU elections
- European Council conclusions over ERA (built upon ERAC)
- Key events regarding R+D+I:
- 2x Competitiveness Councils (27-28 September & 29-30 November)
- HHRR Conference (MSCA conference, 1-2 October 2018)
EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme (FP9)
“Horizon Europe” (2021-2027) was announced on May 2nd 2018 with a budget of 100 billion €
Next steps:
- EC adopts Horizon Europe proposal
- Negotiations with the European Council and European Parliament. This includes discussion within the MS.
- Council and Parliament adopt Horizon Europe
- Launch of Horizon Europe on January 1st 2021
EURAXESS specific issues:
- EURAXESS Career Development section, which includes many resources developed in recent EU funded projects, has been published: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/career-development
- EURAXESS Worldwide Republic of Korea has been launched. The section is open in the EURAXESS portal and a launching event is planned for the 13 July 2018 in Seoul.
- EURAXESS Worldwide Australia and New Zealand is under negotiation, and EURAXESS Worldwide South Africa is being explored.
- H2020 project EURAXESS TOP III will end on 31 August 2018. EURAXESS TOP IV will begin on 1 September 2018.
- Next Biannual Conference will take place in Prague on the spring of 2019. The framework of the event will be the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.
- EURAXESS statistics: From June 2018 to December 2018 several Service Centres are testing a new submission mechanism, which is expected to be particularly useful for recording consultations on real time in those organizations that currently lack a formal system for recording the statistics. This submission mechanism is expected to be available together with the current six-month submission process.