Paper Titles & Abstracts

The paper analyses post-crisis research policies in three countries which have moved towards mobilizing the private sector in their approaches and consider whether this will result in a spill-over from EU competition law into this field. While the Lisbon Treaty has strengthened EU competences regarding research policy and although the 'Europe of knowledge' is ranking high on the Europe 2020 agenda, devising research policies is still the Member States' prerogative. In recent years, Member States have increasingly encouraged public research organisations to engage in joint projects with the private sector and to commodify research results. Some Member States have also made public funding dependent on performance and impact. Such moves could, however, result in blurred boundaries between public and private sectors and subject higher education institution (HEI) research to the constraints of EU primary law which so far has only been recognised to a limited extent (e.g. Community framework for state aid for research and development and innovation (OJ C 323/1, 30.12.2006)). The paper's theoretical framework analyses EU level competences and the possibility of spill-over from other areas of primary law. It then evaluates the post-crisis research funding systems in selected countries with a focus on HEIs. Finally, it investigates how far HEIs could become vulnerable to EU competition law as an example of seemingly unrelated EU primary law.