BU Research Blog

The European Parliament has published a report in response to the various draft documents for Horizon 2020. The report suggests that the budget for the research and innovation programmes should be doubled (so get networking now to apply for this in 2014!) and large scale projects (such as GALILEO) be paid for outside of this budget. Collaborative transnational excellent research should be kept at the heart of Horizon 2020 and a move towards a more ‘science-based’ approach and a more trust-based and risk-tolerant attitude towards participants at all stages of the funding system should be taken. Research Priorities should be set in a more transparent way and rules should be easy to interpret and apply to all EU research and innovation programmes and instruments. It also calls for greater participation for Member States who are currently under-supported, more support for underperforming regions and states that there should be new measures to support Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).