Horizon 2020 simplification
Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020). It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market. Horizon 2020 is open to everyone, with a simple structure that reduces red tape and time so participants can focus on what is really important. This approach makes sure new projects get off the ground quickly – and achieve results faster.
The Commission intends to make changes to the last two years of the Horizon 2020 programme in a bid to attract more top talent. These will include: adopting a fully ‘bottom-up’ approach – so innovative projects that cut across sectors and technologies become more eligible for support – and putting more emphasis on financial and technical support for start-ups, in the hopes that they can scale-up quicker.
The major priorities of the 2014 – 2020 agenda for Research and Innovation are Open Innovation, Open Science and Open to the World. Communication and simplification efforts have been bearing fruit, with the number of applications increasing by 23.9% between 2014 and 2015. The share of new participants, including SMEs and large companies, has also vastly increased. Moreover, the quality of applications has been very high – Horizon 2020 would have needed €41.6 billion more in the first two years to fund all proposals deemed excellent by independent evaluators. Two years in, a closer look at the results and project examples clearly demonstrates the huge potential in Europe for excellent research and innovation and for turning it into economic value and a better quality of life.
Source: www.ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/