Tagged / horizon 2020

Social sciences & humanities taking on the EC for funding in Horizon 2020 today

Europe’s social scientists and humanities researchers are combining forces to push for more funding in Horizon 2020 through the European Alliance for the Social Sciences and Humanities, which will have its first general assembly today and tomorrow in Brussels. The European Commission has proposed that social science and humanities research would be funded as part of five other funding pots for grand challenges, which include climate change, health and ICT but the alliance members want the establishment of a sixth pot called Understanding Europe for social sciences and humanities research.

I will report on the Assembly when info becomes available.

UK does brilliantly in FP7, so why not be part of it…?

The UK success rate for proposals submitted to FP7 is around 24%, compared to an average across the EU Member states of 21%. The UK is the second most successful participant both in terms of the budget share (behind Germany), so we are continually fighting our corner for funding.

The top collaborative links within FP7 for the UK are with researchers from Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, you can see the country success rates and statistics  on the country profile section of the Commission’s new website on which also contains examples of FP7 projects that each country is involved in.

New Horizon 2020 website launched

To celebrate the planned developments in Horizon 2020, the EC have launched a brand spanking new set of webpages. I’m not going to lie, visually it’s not the most attractive site I’ve ever been on, but it does have a FAQ section, a timeline for Horizon 2020, a calendar of events, and a new video will be added each day until the launch from various stakeholders providing their views on the plans.

Proposals set for a Supersized Erasmus Programme

The EC has proposed **Supersized** version of the Erasmus Prorgramme with a whopping 70% increase in funding and more wide ranging for education funding 2014-2020 called ‘Erasmus for All’ (totaling €19-billion).

Erasmus for All would merge the 7 existing programmes, such as the Lifelong Learning or Youth in Action programmes, under one single banner to increase efficiency, make it easier to apply for funding, reduce fragmentaton and duplication.

Erasmus for All aims to enable education systems to ‘deliver the knowledge and skills needed in an increasingly globalised labour market’, according to the EC. Several programme names, such as Leonardo or Comenius, will disappear and be branded as Erasmus actions. “In setting up an integrated single programme, it makes sense to avoid multiple names and to capitalise on the popularity and awareness of the Erasmus brand” the EC said.

The programme would include three “key actions”: learning mobility (66% of the budget), including funding for student and staff mobility; cooperation for innovation (26%), to increase links between education and business, as well as between Europe and other regions; and policy reform (5%), including the modernisation of higher education and Bologna reform. The remaining 3 % of the programme’s budget would fund operating costs in national agencies.

The proposal will now be discussed by the European Parliament and Member States through the Council of the EU. It is expected that there might be some modifications to the proposal during the co-decision process, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2013 to allow the new programme to start on 1 January 2014.

Applying to the EC for funding? Simples!

One of the major criticisms of EC funding is the complication of funding, rules and paperwork. Horizon 2020 seems a huge merger of activities which have been funded in FP7 under several different programmes, and generic rules are being developed in order to create substantial simplification for participants.

Horizon 2020 will address the call from participants around Europe for a pragmatic shift towards administrative and financial simplification and states that the management of European research funding should be more trust-based and risk-tolerant towards participants.

Simple  funding rules should reduce the administrative costs for participation and will contribute to a reduction of financial errors so good news all round!

Phew – Marie Curie here to stay til 2020!

I am delighted to announce that Marie Curie Actions (which normally sit in the People Programme of FP7) looks like it is here to stay!

The goal of Marie Curie in Horizon 2020 is to ensure optimum development and dynamic use of Europe’s  intellectual capital in order to generate new skills and innovation and, thus, to realise its  full potential across all sectors and regions. The EC sees well-trained, dynamic and creative researchers as the vital raw material for the best science and the most productive research-based innovation.

THE EC feels that Europe hosts a large and diversified pool of skilled academics and l this needs to be constantly replenished, improved and adapted to the rapidly evolving needs of the labour market; particularly as a disproportionate number of researchers will hit retirement over the next few years and the research intensity of the EU economy is increasing.  

The goal is, by leveraging additional funds, to increase the numerical and structural impact of this scheme and to foster excellence at national level in researchers training, mobility and career development. Additional goals are to monitor progress, identify gaps and to increase their impact. Indicators shall be developed and data related to researchers‘ mobility, skills and careers analysed, seeking synergies and close coordination with the policy support actions on researchers, their employers and funders carried out under the ” Inclusive, innovative and secure societies” challenge.

The EC will target early career researchers – either doctoral or postdoc – and call for EU to develop state-of-the-art, innovative training schemes, consistent with the highly competitive and increasingly inter-disciplinary requirements of research and innovation. Strong involvement of businesses, including SMEs and other socio-economic actors, will be needed to equip researchers with the innovation skills demanded by the jobs of tomorrow. It will also be important to enhance the mobility of these researchers, as it currently remains at too modest a level: in 2008, only 7 % of European doctoral candidates were trained in another Member State, whereas the target is 20 % by 2030. Mid-career mobility will also be targeted not only between countries, but also between the public and private sectors as this creates a strong stimulus for learning and developing new skills and is a key factor in cooperation between academics, research centres and industry across countries.

Former Marie Curie schemes have fostered some excellent results and this will continue with future Marie Curie Actions which will encourage new, creative and innovative types of training such as industrial doctorates, involving education, research and innovation players who will have to compete globally for a reputation of excellence. By providing Union funding for the best research and training programmes following the Principles for Innovative Doctoral Training in Europe, they will also promote wider dissemination and take-up, moving towards more structured doctoral training. Marie Curie grants will also be extended to the temporary mobility of experienced researchers and engineers from public institutions to the private sector or vice versa, thereby encouraging and supporting universities, research centres and businesses to cooperate with one another on a European and international scale.

Funding will most likely be around the following 4 areas:

  1. Fostering new skills by means of excellent initial training of researchers: The goal is to train a new generation of creative and innovative researchers, able to convert knowledge and ideas into products and services for economic and social benefit in the Union. Key activities shall be to provide excellent and innovative training to early-stage researchers at post-graduate level via interdisciplinary projects or doctoral programmes involving universities, research institutions, businesses, SMEs and other socio-economic groups from different countries. This will improve career prospects for young post-graduate researchers in both the public and private sectors.
  2. Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility: The goal is to enhance the creative and innovative potential of experienced researchers at all career levels by creating opportunities for cross-border and cross-sector mobility. Key activities shall be to encourage experienced researchers to broaden or deepen their skills by means of mobility by opening attractive career opportunities in universities, research institutions, businesses, SMEs and other socio-economic groups all over Europe and beyond. Opportunities to restart a research career after a break shall also be supported.
  3. Stimulating innovation by means of cross-fertilisation of knowledge:  Key activities shall be to support short-term exchanges of research and innovation staff among a partnership of universities, research institutions, businesses, SMEs and other socio-economic groups, both within Europe and worldwide. This will include fostering cooperation with third countries.
  4. Increasing the structural impact by co-funding the activities:  Key activities shall be, with the aid of a co-funding mechanism, to encourage regional, national and international organisations to create new programmes and to open existing ones to international and intersectoral training, mobility and career development. This will increase the quality of research training in Europe at all career stages, including at doctoral level, will foster free circulation of researchers and scientific knowledge in Europe, will promote attractive research careers by offering open recruitment and attractive working conditions and will support research and innovation cooperation between universities, research institutions and enterprises and cooperation with third countries and international organisations.

Tackling Europe’s Societal Challenges

Yesterday’s blog post highlighted that a draft document we have obtained from the European Commission on Horizon 2020 has indicated that a major area of focus for research funding will be on Societal Challenges. This theme will incorporate EU policy and will focus on bringing together a critical mass of resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies and scientific disciplines. Societal Challenges will be addressed through activities which cover the full cycle from research to market, with a focus on innovation-related activities, such as piloting, demonstration, test-beds, support for public procurement, social innovation and market take-up of innovations.

 

 

 Six thematic areas are included:

  1. Health, demographic change and well-being;
  2. Food security, sustainable agriculture and the bio-economy;
  3. Secure, clean and efficient energy;
  4. Smart, green and integrated transport;
  5. Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials;
  6. Inclusive, innovative and secure societies

I have summarised information contained in the draft Horizon 2020 document for you on each of these areas. Information includes the focus of the thematic area, the rationale behind it and likely areas and activities to be funded. This is a draft document so nothing is set in stone as yet, but it is definitely worth preparing for this now so you and your partners are ready for calls being released in 2013/14.

 This information is highly confidential and not to be circulated outside of BU and can therefore be found on the I Drive:  I:\CRKT\Public\Horizon 2020

So 3 really is the magic number for the EC: The objectives of Horizon 2020

As highlighted in yesterday’s blogpost, funding for Horizon 2020 will now be structured around three priority areas. Below outlines in more detail the areas included in this:

I. Societal Challenges

This will be in response to EU policy and will focus on 6 areas:

 

  1. Health, demographic change and well-being;
  2. Food security, sustainable agriculture and the bio-economy;
  3. Secure, clean and efficient energy;
  4. Smart, green and integrated transport;
  5. Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials;
  6. Inclusive, innovative and secure societies.

 The emphasis will be on bringing together a critical mass of resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies and scientific disciplines in order to address challenges and activities will cover the full cycle from research to market, with a focus on innovation-related activities, such as piloting, demonstration, test-beds, support for public procurement, social innovation and market take-up of innovations. Finally, social sciences and humanities shall be an integral part of the activities to address all the challenges.

 

 

II. Excellent Science

This will reinforce and extend the excellence of the EUs science base in order to make the EU research and innovation system more competitive on a global scale. This will be funded under 4 programmes:

 

  • Marie Curie actions will provide excellent and innovative research training plus attractive career and knowledge-exchange opportunities through cross-border and cross-sector mobility of researchers to best prepare them to face current and future societal challenges.
  • European Research Council (ERC) will provide attractive and flexible funding to enable talented and creative individual researchers and their teams to pursue the most promising avenues at the frontier of science;
  • Future and Emerging Technologies will support collaborative research in order to extend Europe‘s capacity for advanced and paradigm-changing innovation. They foster scientific collaboration across disciplines on radically new, high-risk ideas and accelerate development of the most promising emerging areas of science and technology as well as the EU-wide structuring of the corresponding scientific communities.
  • Research Infrastructures will develop European research infrastructure for 2020 and beyond, foster their innovation potential and human capital, and add the related European Union policy and international cooperation.

These activities are focused on building skills in the long term and on the next generation of science, technology, researchers and innovations and providing support for emerging talent from across the whole of the European Union and associated countries, as well as worldwide.

 

III. Industrial Leadership

This aims to speed up development of the technologies and innovations that will underpin future businesses and help innovative SMEs to grow into world-leading companies. It consists of three specific objectives:

  1. Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies which will provide dedicated support for research, development and demonstration on ICT, nanotechnology, advanced materials, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and processing and space. Emphasis will be placed on interactions and convergence across and between the different technologies.
  2. Access to risk finance in order to overcome deficits in the availability of debt and equity finance for innovative companies and projects at all stages of development  (including supporting the development of Union-level venture capital)
  3. Innovation in SMEs which will stimulate all forms of innovation in SMEs, targeting those with the potential to grow and internationalise across the single market and beyond.

Horizon 2020 will take an integrated approach to the participation of SMEs, which could lead to around 15% of the total combined budgets for all specific objectives on societal challenges and the specific objective on ‘Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies’ being devoted to SMEs.

 

The ‘Societal Challenges ‘ theme and Marie Curie Actions found in the ‘Excellent Science’ theme are most relevant to BU staff and therefore Wednesday and Thursday’s blog posts will focus on these respectively.

 

The focus of FP7s replacement, Horizon 2020

This week I will be bringing you a summary of the most important information contained in the draft Horizon 2020 proposal (FP7s replacement).  Today focuses on the background to Horizon 2020 and its overall objectives and aims, which will help you to understand the rationale behind the new funding structures which will be detailed throughout this week on the blog.

Horizon 2020 has an arching overall primary objective to generate excellent science in order to strengthen the EU’s world-class excellence in science whilst fostering industrial leadership to support business and tackling societal challenges, in order to respond directly to the challenges identified in the Europe 2020 strategy by supporting activities covering the entire spectrum from research to market.

Funding will complement these three primary aims, but each will incorporate at least one of the more specific aims outlined in Horizon 2020. These are to:

  • tackle the major societal challenges identified in Europe 2020 and its flagship initiatives
  • create industrial leadership in Europe increase excellence in the science base
  • achieve a European research area in which researchers, scientific knowledge and  technology circulate freely, and encouraging the Union to become more competitive (including in its industry)
  • ensure  the conditions necessary for the competitiveness of the Union’s industry exist by fostering better exploitation of the industrial potential of policies of innovation, research and technological development
  • contribute to the role of research and innovation as key drivers of social and economic prosperity and of environmental sustainability (to achieve the goal of increasing spending on R&D to reach 3 % of GDP by 2020)
  • support all stages in the innovation chain, especially activities closer to the market including innovative financial instruments
  • satisfy the research needs of a broad spectrum of EU policies by placing emphasis on the widest possible use and dissemination of knowledge generated by the supported activities up to its commercial exploitation
  • develop closer synergies with national and regional programmes that support  research and innovation as well as other Union programmes
  • address the  underlying causes of gender imbalance in science and research by integrating the gender dimension into the content of  projects
  • contribute to the attractiveness of the research profession in the EU
  • favour an informed  engagement of citizens and civil society on research and innovation matters by  promoting science education, by making scientific knowledge more accessible, by  developing responsible research and innovation agendas that meet citizens’ and civil  society’s concerns and expectations and by facilitating their participation in Horizon  2020 activities
  • have strong participation of SMEs
  • promote cooperation with third countries
  • develop a new approach to control and risk management in research  funding; readdressing the balance between trust and control and between risk-taking and risk avoidance
  • promote dissemination of information and as an integral task of research

 

Tomorrow’s blog post will detail the areas of funding proposed within Horizon 2020….

Exclusive! Week long special on Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 is the replacement of FP7 – Europe’s largest funding programme, managed by the European Commission (EC). In 2014, FP7 will end and Horizon 2020 will be the primary mechanism through which to seek EC funding.

A confidential draft paper was released this week which details the proposed direction of Horizon 2020. Every day next week I will post important summaries of sections of the document most relevant to you so you can get a head start on preparing for Horizon 2020:

 

    • Monday covers the rationale behind Horizon 2020
    • Tuesday will detail the 3 funding priority areas of Horizon 2020
    • Wednesday will outline funding proposed in the most relevant funding area for BU staff; ‘Societal Challenges’
    • Thursday details proposals for the Marie Curie Programme throughout Horizon 2020
    • Friday outlines the proposals for simplification of the rules and regulations of EC funding
    BU is the only University in the UK who has summarised this document and will disseminate it to their staff, so make sure you take full advantage of this information!

Want more funding for Social Sciences and Humanities Research? Then you should sign this petition to the EC!

A consortium called ‘Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities for the Future of Europe’ is seeking signatures to an open letter addressed to the EC which advocates the inclusion of a socio-economic sciences and humanities(SSH) research programme in Horizon 2020 (FP7’s replacement).   

The group comprises a number of organisations including Net4Society, the network of National Contact Points for SSH, ALLEA, the European Federation of National Academies of Sciences and Humanities, and ECHIC, the European Consortium of Humanities Institutes and Centres. 

The letter outlines the crucial role to be played by social sciences and humanities research in addressing societal challenges and informing EU policy, and makes a number of specific requests:
1. that a ‘substantial and independent’ SSH programme (called ‘Understanding Europe’), with a ring-fenced budget of €5 billion, be included in Horizon 2020;
2. that there are opportunities for SSH research to contribute to other challenges relating to climate change, energy, food, health, security and transport;
3. that a diversity of approaches are encouraged; and
4.that the research supported should include ‘perspectives from different cultures, backgrounds and schools of thought to stimulate critical reflections and to better anticipate future societal challenges’.

In a week since its issue, the open letter has collected a staggering 3, 700 signatures from a wide range of countries. It takes only a few seconds to sign and I did mine this morning. If you’re involved in social sciences or humanities research, make your signature count so future EC funds for your area are fair and sign today!

A glimpse of Horizon 2020….

It has been announced that Horizon 2020 will include three components for basic research, industrial technology, and ‘grand challenges’

  • ‘Excellence in the science base’ will fund basic research.
  • ‘Creating industrial leadership and competitive frameworks’ will fund business research and innovation, in particular for small enterprises.
  •  ‘Tackling societal challenges’ will fund research that responds to grand challenges such as food security and climate change.

Horizon 2020 will increase funding for innovation through funding schemes for ‘prototyping, dissemination, demonstration, pilots, testing, user involvement, market replication, and public procurement’ and will use a single, standardised set of rules across all funding instruments to simplify procedures. In addition, it will expand the Open Access Pilot that promotes the free dissemination of EU-funded scientific publications, which now covers about 20 per cent of the Framework 7 budget.

EU Parliament propose double money for Horizon 2020

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).

All the latest on the FP7 Security theme

The Security theme has been a hive of activity over the last few weeks!

Firstly the EU has signed a European Framework Co-operation with the European Defence Agency which will allow them to formally cooperate in promoting dual-use application in research, formally consult with each other and share their R&D goals, align their agendas and coordinate calls for research topics as well as influencing the development of a possible Security theme in Horizon 2020. These activities are expected to support the emergence of dual-use technologies and capabilities for civil and military users across the 27 EU Member States. Protection against Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threats is the first research topic that will be addressed under the newly established EFC. Other topics where the Commission and the EDA plan to co-ordinate their work involve unmanned aerial systems and situational awareness, which includes many technological sub-sectors involving sensors, information management and cyber-security.

Secondly, the presentations of the 2011 Infoday are now available online for anyone who couldn’t attend. These slides also include the list of participants, and Project Officers’ contact details; this is the first time that a list of Project Officers responsible for the various topics to be funded under a Security call has been published.

Thirdly, the annual Security conference was held in Poland at the end of September. The focus of the conference was to explore effective ways in which industry, research institutes and local public (end-user) authorities can be brought together and it was ackwledged during the conference that one of the main challenges is to move the programme from its research focus to a market perspective due to the sector’s fragmentation. Several achievements of the FP7 Security theme that were highlighted during the Conference as well as some of the main new policy goals for Security research in Horizon 2020. You can  read more about the conference  on the SRC 2011 website.

EU Funding for ‘Social Experiments’ (!)

Funding is available under the Progress 2011 theme. Your proposal must contribute to developing and testing socially innovative approaches to policy priorities in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy and the Open Method of Coordination on social protection and social inclusion. To be selected under this call, projects should focus on either of the following selected themes, keeping in mind in all cases the gender dimension of the issue:
• Social inclusion of vulnerable groups (such as Roma people, migrants and their descendants, homeless and young people)
• Quality of childcare services (this has great impacts on child well-being, but also on gender equality, poverty in jobless households, employment rates, birth rates and on long term sustainable development by supporting the development of human potential)
• Active and healthy ageing (this depends on various factors, such as life habits, working conditions or urban policies and represents a major condition in order to extend working lives and to reduce social protection expenditures)
• Transition from education to work for the youth (as only a multidimensional policy approach combining actions on the education framework, the labour market, families can be successful)
Deadlines: 15.12.11 and 30.03.12

New plans for Partnering in Research & Innovation

The EC recently published  Partnering in Research and Innovation which sets out the different types of partnering and aims to progress partnering activities across the EU. The report acknowledges that the existing partnering activities they currently have (such as Public-Private Partnerships) work well as the mutual trust built within them creates excellent research which in turn makes Europe a more attractive global partner in addressing major societal challenges.

More relevant for BU as we tend not to participate in these partnering activities, is that the report acknowledges the need for Horizon 2020 to develop a framework to encourage and support future partnerships and capitalise on these early indications of success. The Active and Healthy Ageing EIP pilot which is designed to ensure that ideas are successfully developed and brought to market in the most coherent way possible is indicative of this.

In order to strike the right balance for Horizon 2020, the EC will soon launch a strategic exercise to determine where and how the partnering approach can be applied most successfully and the types of initiative to which the instruments are best suited. I will keep you informed when further information on this is released.

EC proposes a mammoth €80 billion for Horizon 2020

The EC has made a proposal for the EU budget for the next programme period (2014-2020). Horizon 2020 is proposed to have a whopping budget of €80 billion – a significant increase on the FP7 budget which stands at €52 billion.
The proposal calls for the fields of education and vocational training to be strengthened and it is proposed to overcome current fragmentation in the area by creating a new integrated programme for education, training and youth. The budget earmarked for this is €15.2 billion, and the aim is to have a clear focus on developing skills and mobility.
It is also proposed to increase spending on environmental and climate change issues, with spending on climate-related issues to increase by at least 20% compared to current levels.

Institute for European Environmental Policy aren’t happy with Horizon 2020 proposals

The Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP)has published a report on what the implications of Horizon 2020 on research into environmental issues. In the report, they express concerns over the lack of attention given to biodiversity in particular, also resource efficiency and suggest that the scale of funding proposed for infrastructure projects is likely to have adverse effects on the environment.