A group of researchers led by the Swiss-Austrian Alliance for Mountain Research, and with the help of MRI Europe network, which represents nearly 2000 mountain researchers from all European countries, is lobbying for mountain research with the European funding agencies. One of the strategic objectives of the Swiss-Austrian Alliance for Mountain Research is to “Secure and develop the role of European research towards a sustainable development of mountain regions in an international context.” If they are successful, the group hope this would mean that mountains are recognized for their important role in the European economy and generally for the European lowlands.

The researchers are preparing a strategic paper with the tentative title "Mountains for Europe’s Future", which should be ready by early 2016. This will be presented at the Roundtable "Key research themes for European mountains" at the "Mountains of our Future Earth Conference" at Perth in October 2015, and then fed into the Horizon 2020 consultation process to influence the 2018-2019 work programmes.

The group are also asking people with an interest in mountain research to complete a short online questionnaire by 25th June. A blog post “Mountains for Europe’s future: Putting mountains on the Horizon 2020 agenda” provides more background information about this project.