In conversation with Mariya Gabriel on Recovery, Resilience and Research - EU commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth

As EU Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel’s plate is currently full to the brim with initiatives aimed at boosting Research and Innovation (R&I) in Europe and beyond to tackle the spread of COVID-19. From the organisation of a European-wide Hackathon in April to the launching of a European Data platform, the Commissioner underlined that there “cannot be a trade-off between research and innovation and the recovery – R&I is an essential key to recovery”. These platforms are fundamental to scale-up and speed-up solutions and benefit SMEs, the most affected by the crisis.

Equally, investments in the fields of education and culture are important investments for the future of Europe. Gabriel, therefore, stressed the importance of the Digital Education Action plan scheduled for later this year. Best practices on digital education and culture can now also be shared through European-wide platforms. Great ideas alone will, however, not be sufficient if they are not harvested and cultivated by all the ecosystem’s stakeholders.

Commissioner Gabriel highlighted that what is needed is a strong budget in form of the reshuffled MFF that takes research, innovation, education and culture as serious priorities on the road to recovery and towards reaching the goals of the Green Deal and the Digitalisation of Europe.