Research, higher education and innovation: redesigning multi-level governance within Europe in a period of crisis

In this paper we present a vision for the course Europe should take in its research and higher education policies in order to fully live up to the expectations of its citizens to provide a safe, comfortable, affluent and sustainable environment in this period of considerable financial restraint on the part of EU governments. In particular we focus on the division of labour between the EU, Member States and regions. We first provide a brief historical overview of the origins of research policy in Europe. Second, we give our vision for investments in research and higher education for economic growth and hence also for solving many of the "big challenges" Europe is being confronted with already today but increasingly so in the coming years. Third, we fit out our vision onto the history to derive a perspective on how our vision could be transferred in budgetary and regulatory terms according to an optimum interplay between the EU, member states and regions.