EU Adopts Charter to Simplify Access to Research Facilities for Startups and SMEs

The European Commission adopted a new charter on Wednesday designed to make it "easier and faster" for companies to use Europe's "world-class research and innovation facilities," according to a statement. Startups and small companies can now tap into Europe's top research facilities more directly, cutting the time it takes to turn an idea into a real product. Ekaterina Zaharieva, the European commissioner for startups, research and innovation, said that "innovative companies in Europe need cutting-edge infrastructures to develop and test ideas and bring their innovations to the market more quickly." The charter comes as the EU continues to stress the importance of boosting the bloc's competitiveness compared with top global players such as the US and China. "I invite research and technology infrastructures to endorse the Charter and champion its principles," Zaharieva continued. Why it matters for smaller firms Companies often struggle to find out what services research infrastructures offer or how much access will cost, a problem that hits smaller businesses hardest, according to the Commission. Larger firms tend to have more resources to navigate complex or opaque agreements. The Charter's six principles cover increased visibility and availability of services, transparency and quality standards, simplified contracts, safe management of intellectual property, tailored support for companies and closer cooperation between infrastructures on data-sharing. Research and technology infrastructures can now formally endorse the Charter through an online form. The Commission said it would back the rollout with webinars, events and a shared repository where organisations can submit examples of good practice. Part of a wider EU push The Charter forms part of the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, which seeks to make the bloc the world's top destination for launching and growing technology-driven companies. It also complements the EU's broader strategy on research and technology infrastructures, and sits alongside an existing European Charter for Access to Research Infrastructures.