How can EGI contribute to Europe 2020?
The Europe 2020 Strategy is the growth strategy for the coming decade for the EU to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. It is established by the European Commission and through its flagship initiatives such as the “Digital Agenda for Europe” and “Innovation Union”, provides an opportunity for the EGI community to play an important role in achieving some of the key objectives defined in these strategies.
Therefore, EGI.eu has produced a dedicated report EGI Role towards Europe 2020 that provides an overview of the latest EU strategic developments reflected in the Europe 2020 Strategy and reports created by the EU high-level expert groups on clouds and scientific data relevant to the EGI community. As a result of this report, a number of recommendations have been identified.
Some of the key recommendations for EGI.eu are: to provide reports that comprises the latest strategic, policy and legislative activities within the EC (e.g. European Interoperability Strategy and European Interoperability Framework, Data Protection regulation, EU strategy for cloud computing); to develop an EU communication and lobbying strategy; to investigate the adoption of Green IT initiatives within the EGI community; to investigate how to further strengthen the role of the EGI community in international digital forums through a greater coordination between DCI projects among others.
Some of the recommendations for the NGIs include: to improve the communication with their national authorities, to check the latest developments and measures taken by their States related to promote and implement the goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy; to clearly communicate with government bodies about the plans to increase the percentage of the Structural funds and Cohesion fund for research & innovation projects.
Policy and strategic responses are needed at the highest level to support EGI.eu’s efforts in providing a coordinated response across the community, to the EC and other relevant stakeholders. Alignment is needed to ensure that EGI not only retains but improves its position as the key DCI stakeholder within Europe and globally. Looking at the objectives of Digital Agenda and Europe 2020 and ways to reach them, we can play an important and active role in implementing the key European actions.
