Finnish Interest Representation in EU Research and Innovation Policy : Case of European Framework Programme Horizon Europe
Ahvo, Johannes (2023)
2023
Politiikan tutkimuksen maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in Politics
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-05-31
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202305306273
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202305306273
Tiivistelmä
This Master’s Thesis focuses on the topic of European research and innovation policy and its main policy and funding programme Horizon Europe and how Finnish industry has tried to lobby European R&I policy. European R&I policy has a long history in the development of European community. EU’s funding programmes have increased with the current programme Horizon Europe having a budget of 95.5 billion euros for the years 2021–2027. Horizon Europe is the main funding programme for EU to directly support community research and innovation activities. The programme has different sub-areas that implement its vision towards different actor group and thematic areas. EU R&I policy landscape is competitive as there are multiple interest groups trying to influence policy-making with different viewpoints coming across industry, university and research community and Member States.
The theoretical framework of this thesis builds on the routes of influence that can be roughly divided to ‘Brussels’ route and national route of influence. Brussels route covers lobbying activities taken on European level both directly towards EU institutions as well as via European level associations and networks. The national route covers lobbying activities taken through national public authorities and national networks and associations. In addition, the theoretical framework lies on the assumption that for gaining access to policy- and decision-makers the lobbyists exchange their resources and information for the possibility to meet and present their viewpoints to the decision-makers. The study was executed through expert interviews and theory guided qualitative content analysis was utilised as the method of analysis. The data consists of eight interviews with EU R&I policy or government relations experts from Finnish industry, expert organisation, business association, state owned research and technology company, ministry, and executive agency. The analytical framework was built on the routes of influence and covered aspects of the characteristics of different actors as well as the types of actions they have taken in regards of their lobbying activities. Furthermore, the analytical framework was extended based on findings from the data.
The analysis covers how the organisations utilise different routes of influence as well as how they see European R&I policy landscape and Horizon Europe in overall. The analysis concludes that stakeholders utilise multiple routes of influence that complement each other both for stating their perspectives as well as for gathering information. European Commission was regarded in overall as key institution to approach as it enables to participate in policy drafting already in an early phase. Furthermore, the role of associations and networks both in European and national level was considered useful especially from the perspective of understanding the big picture of EU R&I policy. The study concludes with suggestions for further directions of research in regards of EU R&I policy and interest representation in the field.
The theoretical framework of this thesis builds on the routes of influence that can be roughly divided to ‘Brussels’ route and national route of influence. Brussels route covers lobbying activities taken on European level both directly towards EU institutions as well as via European level associations and networks. The national route covers lobbying activities taken through national public authorities and national networks and associations. In addition, the theoretical framework lies on the assumption that for gaining access to policy- and decision-makers the lobbyists exchange their resources and information for the possibility to meet and present their viewpoints to the decision-makers. The study was executed through expert interviews and theory guided qualitative content analysis was utilised as the method of analysis. The data consists of eight interviews with EU R&I policy or government relations experts from Finnish industry, expert organisation, business association, state owned research and technology company, ministry, and executive agency. The analytical framework was built on the routes of influence and covered aspects of the characteristics of different actors as well as the types of actions they have taken in regards of their lobbying activities. Furthermore, the analytical framework was extended based on findings from the data.
The analysis covers how the organisations utilise different routes of influence as well as how they see European R&I policy landscape and Horizon Europe in overall. The analysis concludes that stakeholders utilise multiple routes of influence that complement each other both for stating their perspectives as well as for gathering information. European Commission was regarded in overall as key institution to approach as it enables to participate in policy drafting already in an early phase. Furthermore, the role of associations and networks both in European and national level was considered useful especially from the perspective of understanding the big picture of EU R&I policy. The study concludes with suggestions for further directions of research in regards of EU R&I policy and interest representation in the field.