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A decade of Joint Programming Initiatives on Societal Challenges

Published on
December 19, 2019

In 2007, the first draft for a coordinating mechanism for combined European research on a number of key societal issues was laid out by the European Commission. The European Member States were invited to establish and implement joint research programmes based on the existing national ones. In addition, they were invited to further explore the potential of Joint Programming: a common approach in tackling societal problems that Member States can't solve solely. After a pilot in the area of neurodegenerative diseases (where the JPI on Neurodegenerative Diseases emerged from), in 2010, a ‘first wave’ of Joint Programming Initiatives was adopted by the European Council. These JPIs were on 'Agriculture, food security and climate change' (FACCE-JPI), 'Cultural Heritage and Global Change: a new challenge for Europe' (JPI Cultural Heritage) and 'A healthy diet for a healthy life' (JPI HDHL), followed in 2011 by the ‘second wave’ of JPI’s, leading to the ten JPIs present today.

After a decade of joint research programming on Societal Challenges, the JPIs HDHL and FACCE have already announced a celebration event. Likely they will look back and take stock of their accomplishments, as well as look forward and identify their possible contributions in the new decade.

Read more background on the origin of the Joint Programming Initiatives and the Joint Programming Process at our dedicated website page.