Horizon 2020: Commission Proposes €80 Billion Investment in Research & Innovation

The European Commission has presented an €80 billion package of proposals for research and innovation funding, as part of the drive to create sustainable growth and new jobs in Europe. The new programme, Horizon 2020 will make it easier for applicants to seek funding and is designed to help bring more good ideas to market. Horizon 2020 will run from 2014 to 2020. The proposals will be negotiated by the European Parliament and the European Council over the next two years with a view to adoption of legislative acts by end 2013. Alongside this, Parliament and Council negotiations will determine the EU budget for 2014-20, including the overall budget for Horizon 2020.

Horizon 2020 - proposed new programme architecture

EU funding for research and innovation will be focused on three strategic objectives, implemented through specific programmes and a dedicated financial contribution to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

The first objective is dedicated to supporting an 'Excellent science' in Europe. A budget of €24.6 billion will strengthen the EU's position as a world leader in science. This will include:

• €13.2 billion for the highly successful European Research Council (ERC), which provides substantial grants to top-level individual researchers working in Europe.
• Investment of €3.1 billion in future and emerging technologies (FET) to open up new fields of research and innovation.
• A budget of €5.75 billion for the Marie Curie Actions to develop research and innovation skills through the training, mobility and career development of researchers.
• Funding of €2.4 billion will also be available for supporting access to, and networking of priority research infrastructures (including e-infrastructures) across Europe.

The second objective, 'Industrial leadership', with a budget of €17.9 billion, will help make Europe a more attractive location to invest in research and innovation. It will include major investments in key industrial technologies such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), nanotechnologies, biotechnology and space (total of €13.7 billion). It will facilitate access to risk finance, which has a high leverage on private investment and has been shown to be a very valuable tool in fighting the lack of risk capital following the financial crisis (dedicated budget of €3.5 billion). It will also provide EU-wide support for innovation in SMEs with high growth potential (€0.6 billion).

The third objective, 'Societal challenges' will see €31.7 billion allocated to tackling the major issues affecting the lives of European citizens. The focus will be on six key areas:

• Health, demographic change and well-being (€8 billion);
• Food security, sustainable agriculture, marine and maritime research and the bio-based economy (€4.1 billion);
• Secure, clean and efficient energy (€5.7 billion);
• Smart, green and integrated transport (€6.8 billion);
• Climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials (€3.1 billion);
• Inclusive, innovative and secure societies (€3.8 billion).

The goal will be more than ever to bring excellent research results to market. This will deliver direct benefits to citizens, such as affordable health-care, protection against cyber-crime, and the transition to a resource-efficient, low-carbon economy.

The Commission has launched a new website for Horizon 2020. Further information, including the published proposals can be found here.

EIT to Create More Innovation Hubs

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) aims to promote the competitiveness of Member States by bringing together excellent higher education institutions, research centres and businesses to focus on major societal challenges.

The EIT has recently announced it is to significantly step up its efforts to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in the EU with the creation of six new cross-border innovation hubs, known as Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), in 2014-2020. The European Commission has allocated a budget of €2.8 billion in the next financial framework to enable the EIT to expand and consolidate the development of its existing KICs which focus on climate change, sustainable energy and ICT.

The Commission has also adopted a proposal for the EIT 'Strategic Innovation Agenda', which defines the framework for the Institute's operations in the years to come. The Commission expects it to provide an impetus for creating up to 600 start-up companies and for training 25 000 students and 10 000 PhDs in new curricula combining excellent science with a strong entrepreneurship component.

The EIT brings together excellent higher education institutions, research centres and businesses with a view to tackling major societal challenges in an innovative way. It complements other European education and research initiatives and is at the heart of the new Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

The Commission plans to set up the new KICs in two phases. The first group, to be set up in 2014, will have the following themes:

• Innovation for healthy living and active ageing (improving the quality of life and well-being of citizens of all ages)
• Food4future (sustainable food supply chain, from farm to fork)
• Raw materials (sustainable exploration, extraction, processing, recycling and substitution of raw materials)

The next wave of KICs, to be established in 2018, will focus on:

• Added value manufacturing (developing more competitive, sustainable and environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes)
• smart secure societies (addressing Europe's security gaps through the development and deployment of innovative ICT solutions)
• urban mobility (delivering a greener, more inclusive, safer and smarter urban mobility system)

The themes were selected on the basis of criteria established by the Commission, following a public consultation with the innovation community.

For more information about the EIT and the new themes, please click here.

European Commission Appoints Its First Chief Scientific Adviser

EU President Barroso has appointed the Commission's first Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Anne Glover.

Professor Glover has been serving as Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland and holds a Personal Chair of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Aberdeen. She also has honorary positions at the Rowett and Macaulay Institutes, is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a member of the Natural Environment Research Council, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

As Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Glover's functions will be:

• To provide independent expert advice on any aspect of science, technology and innovation as requested by the President;
• Upon a request by the President, to provide analysis and opinion on major policy proposals being submitted to the College touching upon issues of science, technology and innovation; in particular the Chief Scientific Advisor will provide authoritative guidance on interpretation of scientific evidence in presence of uncertainty, and will be involved in strategic emergency planning;
• To build relationships with high-level advisory groups (e.g. European Research Area Board), the scientific Committees of the Commission, the EU agencies (European Medicine Agency, European Food Safety Authority, the European Chemicals Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control), the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies;
• To build relationships with similar structures in Member States and other countries;
• To advise on novel science, technology and innovation issues arising both in the context of the EU and internationally; to serve as an early warning conduct point on issues that might arise when scientific progress entails either opportunity or threat for the EU;
• To communicate the scientific values on which specific Commission proposals are based in order to enhance public confidence in science and technology, and in general to promote European culture of science and technology widely within Europe and abroad.

President Barroso said: "I am delighted to appoint Professor Anne Glover to the post of Chief Scientific Advisor. I believe her outstanding background and calibre will bring invaluable expertise to the Commission. She has a strong track record in leading the Scottish Science Advisory Committee which made her the standout candidate for this post."

European Commission Publishes Survey & Outcomes of Cultural Heritage Research Projects

The European Commission has published a survey and outcomes of cultural heritage research projects supported in the context of EU environmental research framework programmes. Particular emphasis is put on outcomes and the global impacts of these projects and the study is a first attempt to synthesise the vast amount of information resulting from the cultural heritage research projects supported under FP5, FP6 and FP7 (until 2010). Data has been sourced using EC databases and the recent EU publication "Preserving our heritage, improving our environment, Cultural heritage research: FP5, FP6 and related projects" (Volume II) which includes a very valuable compilation of FP5 and FP6 cultural heritage research projects.

The study shows that the networking within and between project consortia, throughout the various Framework Programmes (FPs), has contributed towards improving the knowledge needed for preserving cultural heritage and created a European research community in the field of cultural heritage preservation. Although the dissemination of project results is embedded in each project, there is room for improvement regarding knowledge transfer and commercial exploitation of results which would generally benefit from the help of specialists in this field. There is still significant fragmentation in research in this area and in line with the general approach of the European Research Area (ERA), further efforts are required to improve communication and coordination of research including strengthening links with policy and user needs. It is important that research leads to practical solutions for conservation experts and results in viable tools for the widest possible circle of end-users.

To download the survey, please click here.

Science at the Service of Europe 

Science at the Service of Europe is an illustrated a guide to the 2010 annual activity report of the European Commission's Research & Innovation DG.

It covers all research areas from Health to Transport and Energy to Environment. Each thematic area presents two short project descriptions to explain how science is serving Europe. To download the full report please click here.