Three key principles: alignment, flexibility and subsidiarity
Neth-ER, on behalf of the Dutch knowledge community, welcomes the upcoming European Research Area (ERA) Act as a valuable opportunity to set European standards for the fifth freedom in due course. In our reaction to the Commission's public consultation, we emphasise three key principles: alignment, flexibility and subsidiarity.
- Alignment: we urge that the Act focuses on standardisation and setting European norms in a fragmented European Research Area, in coherence with existing policy, the ERA Actions and the upcoming Innovation Act.
- Flexibility: it is essential that the Act tasks R&I stakeholders with defining the framework conditions in the Act, through comitology, thereby ensuring autonomy and sufficient flexibility for national and institutional initiatives.
- Subsidiarity: before introducing new EU laws, it must be absolutely clear that EU action is required. Future proposals must be supported by solid evidence that European legislation is effective and appropriate.
Strengthen public and private commitments to reach a binding 3% target
Neth-ER strongly urges that the ERA Act must enforce the EU-wide minimum 3% GDP target by 2030. To secure commitment, the Act should stimulate Member States to strengthen enabling conditions to increase both public and private R&D investments, with at least two-thirds from the private sector. The Act should require Member States to develop a roadmap with public investment commitments. Member States ought to integrate these into national and regional reform plans under the new Multiannual Financial Framework. We underline Draghi's recommendation to monitor progress through the European Semester. Maintaining a balance between stronger European coordination of policy-relevant research, on the one hand, and space for bottom-up disruptive innovation, on the other, is essential.
Set standards to protect researchers’ rights
The ERA Act must create the framework conditions to improve the protection of researchers' rights. The Act should prioritise setting standards for a European right to conduct research and share results across borders without restrictions. A necessary precondition is that the Commission invites Member States and stakeholders to develop flexible definitions for both the "freedom of scientific research" and "academic freedom". In this way, the Act would adequately involve stakeholders to lay the basis for a future, separate resolution for a European right to the freedom of scientific research that holds Member States accountable. Neth-ER also advocates for introducing secondary publication rights for researchers.
Establish a unified trust-based research security framework
The ERA Act shall set minimum research security requirements to guarantee a level-playing field for member states. Europe needs a unified approach to tackle insufficient security caused by fragmentation. Therefore, the Act should build a trust-based framework of positive measures to coordinate research security at the EU-level. The Commission must invite Member States and stakeholders to establish guidelines on the recruitment and selection of candidates in sensitive technology areas. This is a prerequisite to ensure that this framework respects autonomy and flexibility for institutions. It is essential that the Commission, together with the R&I sector, formulates and includes a European definition of dual-use research in this framework.
Equal access for the whole knowledge ecosystem
We advocate expanding the consultation's scope to build an effective and inclusive R&I ecosystem. Firstly, the ERA Act should concern research and technology infrastructures as a whole, beyond just the ERICs. Neth-ER urges that the ERA Act takes an inclusive ecosystem approach that explicitly includes the whole knowledge chain: research universities, universities of applied sciences, vocational institutions, university medical centres, Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) & Research Performing Organisations (RPOs), and industry. Secondly, the ERA Act should include norms for equity, instead of merely gender equality, to better ensure equal opportunities. However, the Commission shall set only non-binding norms on equity, to respect the subsidiarity principle.
Where is sustainability?
Finally, sustainability is completely missing in the ERA Act, both as an overarching principle and a standalone theme. Including sustainability in the Act is essential to researching the impact of R&D policies and providing insight into long-term cost efficiency. In all policy areas of the Act, the Commission should adhere to the principle “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” and prevent regulatory fragmentation.
Context
The European Research Area Act is expected to be published in the third quarter of 2026. The Act will be very first European Act related to the ‘fifth freedom’, the free movement of knowledge, science, researchers and technology. The Commission opened the public consultation opened in October 2025. Prior to this, a call for evidence opened in August 2025, to which Neth-ER shared feedback as well. Neth-ER also responded to the call for evidence on the European Innovation Act. In 2020, Neth-ER published a position paper on the ERA.
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