Alignment

Alignment has been identified as a prerequisite of successful joint programming activities. Better alignment of research policy agendas leads to more effective trans-border cooperation and creation of the necessary critical mass to tackle challenges that cross our national borders. Naturally, the level of commitment and alignment achieved varies from one P2P network to another but also changes over time. The work done by ERA-LEARN 2020 in this report has revealed the variety of challenges facing alignment efforts covering the three levels, i.e. strategic, operational and financial. At the same time, we have managed to identify a number of good practice cases that can provide solutions to these challenges. Importantly, we have looked both within the P2P community as well as beyond and several valuable examples have surfaced.

The Report on the definition and Typology of Alignment recommends to adopt a common definition of alignment in a public-public partnership (P2P) context based on the definition elaborated in 2014 by the High Level Group for Joint Programming (GPC), and proposes a typology (i.e., classification) of alignment actions and instruments currently in use in Europe. This typology will form the basis for developing a more in-depth assessment of current alignment approaches. The report is based on a review of existing literature and P2P practices as well as on inputs received during the Workshop on the Practical Implementation of Alignment: Learning from Good Practice held in Brussels on 29 September 2015

Annex to the ERA-LEARN report on the definition and Typology of alignment.

This practical “toolbox” synthesizes the lessons learned from the case studies that examine current and novel alignment modalities. It describes specific alignment actions or instruments in practical terms, the key benefits and weaknesses of such an action, and the success factors necessary to ensure effective implementation and impact.

There are a variety of actions and instruments currently in use in Europe that promote and facilitate the practical implementation of alignment of national research and innovation strategies, activities, and resources. Such joint actions can in fact occur at any stage of the research and innovation programming cycle. The consolidated “Alignment Typology” identifies 29 alignment actions and instruments currently in use by various European public-to-public research partnerships along the entire research and innovation programming cycle. This report provides information about the possible use, benefits, challenges, and key factors of successful implementation for each of the 29 actions identified in the Typology table.

This publication contains nine case studies that examine different approaches and modalities used by EU Member-States (and Horizon2020 Associated Countries) to facilitate the alignment of national research strategies, programmes and other activities in the context of joint programming processes. These case studies have been conducted in the framework of Task 4.2 of the ERA-LEARN2020 Project (2015-18), and build on the “Typology of Alignment” developed under the project’s Task 4.1. The case studies do not constitute in-depth evaluations of ongoing practices. Instead they aim to illustrate how selected approaches have been used to promote alignment at strategic, operational and financial levels, and what the key “lessons learned” are from these experiences. The case studies outline the main benefits and challenges practitioners have faced when putting in place such approaches, and the key factors for their successful implementation. The main target audience for this publication are national research funding and research performing organisations.