"R&D comes at an economic cost which must be covered," states the executive board of EARTO, an RTO trade association, in a declaration urging the Commission to rethink the 20% cap on reimbursement of overheads established for Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs), the EU-wide public-private research partnerships.
RTOs, universities, SMEs and others "will turn their backs on the JTIs" if the working conditions offered are unrealistic, warned the board, adding that they were not willing to work "at a pre-ordained loss". The declaration underlines that RTOs have overheads, such as structural and administrative costs, equivalent to 100% or more of direct project costs. SMEs' and universities' overheads also generally exceed the limit of 20%, it argues.
The organisation also highlights "concerns about ill-conceived IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] policies" with regard, for example, to the first call for proposals for the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) in which many RTOs, universities and SMEs refused to participate earlier this summer.
The IMI's IPR policy is "somewhat unreasonably weighted towards industry interests," said EARTO Secretary General Christopher Hull. He noted that the group of member states following the IMI had requested a review of the policy for the same reason.
Such "unrealistic" funding and IPR conditions are said to discourage many of the best research performers from participating in the JTIs' R&D programmes and hamper the achievement of the bloc's European Research Area and Lisbon objectives, which both require "constructive engagement of all key players," warns EARTO.
