Michele De Gennaro, Head of the Competence Unit Electric Vehicle Technologies at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and President of EARPA, has been nominated as a member of the European Commission’s informal expert group ‘European Union Research and Innovation for the Automotive Sector’ (EURIAS). The high-level group comprises a total of 50 experts from across Europe and is led by the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD).
EURIAS has been tasked with advising the European Commission on the further development of key policy initiatives in the field of research and innovation in the automotive sector. The aim is to sustainably strengthen the competitiveness of the European automotive industry across the entire value chain.
The group’s work focuses in particular on:
- contributing specialist expertise on research and innovation priorities,
- identifying key future topics in the automotive sector,
- and contributing to a strategic research and innovation agenda with a timeframe extending to mid-2026.
In addition, the expert group supports the preparation of the next EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP10) and its integration into the Multiannual Financial Framework for the period 2028–2034. A key deliverable will be the ‘Strategic Research, Innovation and Deployment Agenda’ (SRIDA), which will serve as the basis for future funding and cooperation structures.