The way the EU regards science and research is changing. Faced with mounting pressure to overcome financial crisis and to respond to an ever-growing number of grand societal challenges, the EU has committed itself to completing the European Research Area (ERA) to create an open space for knowledge and growth. The European Commission’s senior advisory board on the ERA has already recognised that for the EU to make the transition to a more streamlined ERA effectively requires “fundamental change in the way we think, work and research – indeed a change as great as any in our history”. In its first public report on the ERA, it called this change a “new Renaissance”.

Building upon the idea of earlier revolutions in thought, society and science that this idea of a “Renaissance” evokes, this panel will explore in detail the changing nature of European research policy as it heads towards the implementation of the ‘Horizon 2020’ framework programme (2014-2020), aimed at securing Europe’s competitiveness. By adopting multi-disciplinary approaches, the panel will question what aspects of European research policy are visibly recurring in the new design for the ERA? What features have been transformed, reformulated for Europe’s new knowledge economy, or even lost from the policy-making process altogether? What risks or benefits do these policy transformations bring with them?  What values could be resurrected to ensure the ERA is constructed in a way in-keeping with the founding ethos of European science? And what challenges lie ahead, particularly when redefining sectorial boundaries?