Horizon 2020 update

and what’s next Dr Alex Berry, European Advisor

15 December 2015, Royal Holloway

alexandra.berry@bbsrc.ac.uk

• UKRO

• H2020 – background and policy

• H2020 – structure and rationale

• H2020 – statistics so far

• H2020 – 2016/17 Work Programme

• EU R&I funding – looking ahead

Agenda

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Horizon 2020Background and Policy

• The EU's funding programme for research and innovation

• Runs for seven years from 2014 – 2020

• Almost €80 billion of funding

• Covering the entire cycle from research to innovation – from basic research to bringing ideas to the market

• Opportunities for individual researchers and groups of researchers, including individual grants, funding for European collaborative research, mobility, close to market activities

• Two-year work programmes with calls for proposals

Horizon 2020 overview

• Overcoming the effects of the economic crisis and high unemployment rate

• Achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive economic growth

• Ensuring Europe– produces world-class science and technology;

– removes barriers to innovation;

– and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering solutions to big challenges facing society

Horizon 2020 overall policy objectives

New Commission – new priorities

• New Commission agenda for jobs, growth, fairness and democratic change (2015-2020)

• 10 new priority areas – none of these directly refer to R&I, but…

• …R&I seen as major drivers to stimulate and leverage investment, finding new solutions and knowledge.

High Level EU Policy Environment

• A new boost for jobs, growth and investment

• A connected digital single market

• A resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy

• A deeper and fairer internal market with a strengthened industrial base

• A deeper and fairer Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)

• A reasonable and balanced free trade agreement with the United States

• An area of Justice and Fundamental Rights based on mutual trust

• Towards a new policy on migration

• Europe as a stronger global actor

• A Union of democratic change.

10 Priority Areas

To keep in mind

Moedas’ 3 O’s – plans for policies and initiatives

European Innovation

Council?

Fund of Funds

Seal of Excellence

Open Innovation

European Science Cloud

European Research Integrity Initiative

Open Science

PRIMA (water

and food in

Mediterranean)

South Atlantic research strategy

EU-LAC Common Research

Area

Open to the world

Involving more actors

Creating the right innovation eco-system

Improve the regulatory environment

“Openness is the key to excellence”

Open data and data management

Research integrity

“Europe is a global leader in science”

More science diplomacy and global collaboration

Partnerships between regions and countries

New priorities defined by the Commissioner for Research and Innovation in June 2015. These include a number of initiatives and policies which with relevance to the 2016/17 Horizon 2020 Work Programme

Horizon 2020Structure and Rationale

Horizon 2020 structure

Excellent Science

European Research Council (ERC)

Future and Emerging

Technologies (FET)

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

(MSCA)

Research Infrastructures

Industrial Leadership

Leadership in Enabling and

Industrial Technologies (LEIT) - ICT, NMBP, Space

Access to Risk Finance

Innovation in SMEs

Societal Challenges

Health and Wellbeing

Food security

Transport

Energy

Climate action

Societies

Security

Widening Participation; Science with and for Society, Mainstreaming of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and ICT, Fast Track to Innovation

European Institute of Innovation and

Technology (EIT)EURATOM

Joint Research Centre (JRC)

“…reinforce and extend the excellence of the Union’s science base and to consolidate the European Research Area in order to make the Union’s research and innovation system more competitive on a global scale…”

Excellent Science Rationale

European Research Council (ERC)

Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Research Infrastructures

• Activities under this pillar cover the breadth of Europe’s research and innovation needs

• Forward-looking, long-term skill development and capacity building to support emerging European talent

• Largely science-driven pillar with many ‘bottom-up’ opportunities

• Budget: €24.2 billion (in current prices)• Integration under one pillar should bring greater

cohesion

Industrial leadership - rationale

• Aim: “to speed up development of technologies and innovations that will underpin tomorrow's businesses and help innovative European SMEs to grow into world-leading companies”

• Promotes activities in which businesses set the agenda

• Provides major investment in key industrial technologies

• Maximise growth potential of European companies by providing adequate financing levels

• Help growth of innovative SMEs

• Budget: €16.5 billion (in current prices)

Leadership in Enabling and Industrial

Technologies (LEIT) -ICT, NMBP, Space

Access to Risk Finance

Innovation in SMEs

Leadership in Enabling and Industrial

Technologies (LEIT) - Introduction

• Key Enabling Technologies (KETs), ICT and Space as areas of key industrial competence determining Europe’s global competitiveness

• Emphasis on areas of research and innovation with a strong industrial dimension and where mastering new technological opportunities will enable and drive innovation

• Some features:– Involvement of Public-Private

Partnerships

– Cross-cutting KETs

– Contributions to solving Societal Challenges and to Focus Areas

Leadership in Enabling and Industrial

Technologies (LEIT) -ICT, NMBP, Space

Innovation in SMEsInnovation in SMEs

Access to Risk Finance

Societal challenges - rationale

• “Horizon 2020 reflects the policy priorities of the Europe 2020 strategy and addresses major concerns shared by citizens in Europe and elsewhere.”

• Bringing together resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies and disciplines.

• Covering activities from research to market with a new focus on innovation-related activities, such as piloting, demonstration, test-beds, and support for public procurement and market uptake.

• Budget: €28.6 billion (in current prices)

Health and Wellbeing

Food security

Transport

Energy

Climate action

Societies

Security

Health (SC1)

Climate Action (SC5)

Food Security

(SC2)

Societies (SC6)

Energy (SC3)

Security (SC7)

Transport (SC4)

Societal Challenges: Configuration• The Societal Challenges each have a separate section of the Horizon 2020 work

programme, containing background information about the challenge, as well as listing the calls and topics in that area during 2016 - 2017.

• Many of the Societal Challenges overlap, meaning that there may be topics relevant to you in numerous work programmes. Earth Observation-relevant topics, for example, can be found in both Climate Action (SC5) and Food Security (SC2) as well as in the LEIT area of Horizon 2020.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/home.html

Participant Portal

Horizon 2020 StatisticsSo far

• According to European Commission data for the first 100 calls which closed by 1 December 2014:– 36,732 eligible proposals were submitted, requesting an EU contribution

of €80.3 billion

– 4,315 proposals were retained for funding → success rate of approximately 14% (but note significant variations across the programme)

• Of the 6,774 unique participants that have signed grant agreements, around 38% are newcomers

• Target to allocate 20% of combined Societal Challenge and LEIT budgets to SMEs has so far been met

* EC publication ‘Horizon 2020 First results’

Statistics

• According to data on Horizon 2020 calls released in June 2015, the UK recorded:– 2,341 participations (more than any other country), of which 850 as

coordinator and 1,491 as participant

– EU contribution of €961.2 million (second only to Germany)

UK performance

1379611

17992 80

UK participation by type of organisation

Higher or secondary education Private for-profit

Research organisations Public bodies

Other

• Success rate across the programme 14% (compared to 20% for FP7)

• Some negative feedback on evaluation and feedback to applicants

• Issues with two-stage procedure handling

• Generally positive feedback on Participant Portal

The first two years

• Commission aims at providing clearer topic descriptions

• Introduces new rules for the two-stage calls

• Promises better briefing for National Contact Points and better information for applicants and beneficiaries

• Reinforcing the quality of proposal evaluation/standards for feedback to applicants

Commission responses to initial feedback

Horizon 2020 - What’s

Coming up? The 2016/17 Work Programme

Commission promises:

• More interdisciplinary topics

• Better embedding of SSH

• More and improved opportunities for international co-operation

• Cross-cutting calls

From 2014/15 to 2016/17

• Two-year programmes setting out Horizon 2020 funding opportunities – they explain what is funded (topics, grant schemes) and the expected policy impact

• Developed by the European Commission

• Consultation happens via advisory boards, Member State Programme Committee

• Calls for proposals give details on the timeline (deadline, evaluation, results) and the eligibility criteria

A Work Programme?

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/funding/reference_docs.html#h2020-work-programmes

• The 2016/17 Work Programme and calls included in this have to respond to the Commission wider policies and priorities

• Overall aim is to create “Jobs, Growth and Investment”

• The General Introduction to the Work Programme explains this in detail – useful read for drafting the Impact section

• Topic structure in the calls: “Specific challenge”, “Scope”, “Expected Impact”

Commission priorities for the EU

Horizon 2020 instruments - EU policy

context – Jobs, Growth and Investment

Europe’s global competitiveness

Job creation/sustainable jobs

Growth

Horizon 2020

financial instruments

• Publication of final Work Programme expected in October 2015 (drafts in September https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/draft-work-programmes-2016-17 , ERC already published)

• Consist of 20 parts, covering the different parts of Horizon 2020

• Separate ERC and EURATOM work programmes

• General annexes include for example information on list of countries eligible for funding, standard eligibility criteria, types of actions, TRL, evaluation criteria

2016/17 Work Programme

Some 2016/17 “Buzz words” and focus

area calls

Automated Road

Transport

Circular Economy

Smart and sustainable

cities

Competitive low-carbon

energy

Energy Efficiency

Internet of Things

Digital Security

Food security

Blue Growth

Healthy ageing and

Personalised healthcare

• More support for innovation and close-to-market activities

• Reinforcement of demand side approaches (pre-commercial and public procurement for innovation)

• Fostering market uptake of innovations

• Broad approach to innovation with more emphasis on different aspects of innovation:

The growing importance of innovation

INNOVATION

PROCESS

PUBLIC SECTOR

SOCIAL

USER DRIVEN

OPEN

BUSINESS MODELVALUE CHAIN

ORGANISATIONAL

EU funding for R&ILooking ahead

• Results of the FP7 ex-post evaluation expected by the end of 2015

• These will feed into the Horizon 2020 mid-term review

• Mid-term review starts in the autumn of 2015 and must be completed by the end of 2017

• Simplification survey open until 23 October 2015

• European Innovation Council?

• Results of the review feed into the planning for “FP9”, “Horizon 2027”, …?

Looking ahead

FP7 ex-post evaluation

Horizon 2020 mid-term

review

Planning for the next

programme

• Will look at progress against Horizon 2020 objectives, impact achieved, relevance of measures, efficiency and use of resources, EU added value

• To include Joint Technology Initiatives, Fast Track to Innovation

• Will take into account FP7 ex-post evaluation

Horizon 2020 mid-term review

• End of 2015 – Call for expressions of interest for expert group

• January - September 2016 – appointment of experts

• October 2016 – group starts work/Commission starts work on Staff Working Document summarising impact assessment

• January - March 2017 – Online consultation of stakeholders

• June 2017 – Final report/Staff working document

Review timeline

• Stay up to date with policy developments via the UKRO Portal

• Respond to consultations (these are publicised on the Portal)

• Start planning for feeding into mid-term review

• What would you like to see in “FP9” – what should stay, go, new ideas…

• How would a European Innovation Council have to be designed to meet your needs as a researcher and innovator?

How can you engage?