The RIDaysEU is the Commission’s annual flagship research and innovation event, which started in 2019. After being held exclusively online between 2020-2023, this year the Research and Innovation days returned into the physical realm.
The event was bundled together with the 2024 Summit of the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the Innovation Procurement Conference organised by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, which were held on 19-20 March, just before the opening ceremony of RIDays.
RIDays tackled three major topics related to European and international innovation. The first day’s topic, “competitiveness” covered talks and panel discussions on the past and future of EU research framework programmes, including Horizon Europe, the upcoming research Framework Programme 10 (FP10), the challenges “widening countries” face, and third countries in horizon, amongst other topics. The theme of the morning session of the second day was “greener Europe”, connecting R&I to sustainability. This included sessions devoted to advanced materials, discussing the recently announced EU strategy on the topic, as well as a panel on research valorisation, a key priority of the Belgian presidency. The afternoon of the second day focused on a “fairer Europe”: accessibility, inclusion and diversity in research. In addition to a panel on research careers, workshops on transforming research assessment, as well as on gender equality in the European Research Area were held. These topics are closely monitored by EuChemS, as it aligns with EuChemS’ Membership in the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (COARA), its recent working group “Towards an Inclusive Evaluation of Research (TIER), and its additional actions on ensuring diverse and inclusive research, such as our participation in the Global Women’s Breakfast.
Furthering the emphasis on the importance of women in R&I, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Iliana Ivanova handed out the 2024 Women Innovators prize and highlighted a number of initiatives, such as the 5th EIC Women Leadership Programme and Women Tech EU.
In addition to the Commissioner, numerous high-profile speakers were present, including Director-General for Research and Innovation Marc Lemaître, member of the European Parliament Lina Gálvez Muñoz, CoARA Chair Rianne Letschert, and Chair of expert advisor group on FP10 Manuel Heitor amongst many others.
