Horizon 2020 – EU’s New Funding Programme

Horizon 2020 – The Framework Programme for Research and Innovation’, will succeed Framework Programme 7 as the main financial instrument supporting European research and development.

Running from 2014 to 2020 with a proposed €80 billion budget (a 46% increase over FP7), the new programme is intended to form a key part of the overall drive to create new growth and jobs across Europe.

Aside from the increase in budget, Horizon 2020 intends to provide major simplifications through a unified set of rules. It will combine all of the research and innovation funding currently provided through the Framework Programmes for Research and Technical Development, the innovation related activities of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.

The proposed support for research and innovation under Horizon 2020 aims to:

  • Strengthen the EU’s position in science with a dedicated budget of € 24 598 million. This will provide a boost to top-level research in Europe, including an increase in funding of 77% for the very successful European Research Council.
  • Strengthen industrial leadership in innovation € 17 938 million. This includes major investment in key technologies, greater access to capital and support for SMEs.
  • Provide € 31 748 million to help address major societal concerns shared by all Europeans; such as climate change, developing sustainable transport and mobility, making renewable energy more affordable, ensuring food safety and security, or coping with the challenge of an ageing population.

The diagram below shows the currently proposed organisational structure for Horizon 2020, split between these three main areas (click to enlarge).

Horizon 2020 Structure

 

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Transient Electronics – can it replace RFID?

A new electronics technology, transient electronics is the official name, just melts away within the body after doing its job.

Testing in the lab has already taken place in areas such as wound healing, temperature sensors, solar cells and a 64 pixel digital camera, though what most of those applications could be used for inside the human body is anyones guess.

Unlike ordinary electronics, which are built to last, transient electronics are not. These small devices are designed to fade away, to dissolve at a pre-set rate leaving no trace in the body.

Transient Electronics

Transient Electronics

Silicon, a major component of the devices melts in water anyway, if thin enough, like the nanomembranes used in transient electronics there would be no trace of them within a couple of weeks. To control the speed of the melt scientists use silk which is dissolved and then reformed and it is this alteration of the silk that coats the silicon that enables the melt time to be controlled.

One likely use is to control wound infection and the devices have been tested on rats, being placed in the wound immediately prior to closure. The wounds heated to a temperature that inhibits the growth of bugs leading to less infection. Other uses were bound to be found for transient electronics such as computer components and mobile phones.

Imagine the environmental benefits  if cell phones for example could just dissolve instead of languishing in landfills for years…

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TSB – Offshore Reneable Energy Supply Chain

Innovative UK companies are invited to bid for Government funding of up to £11.2m for feasibility studies, development and demonstration projects and knowledge transfer partnerships that stimulate innovation in the UK offshore wind and marine energy supply chains.

Grant funding of £10m, from the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board (www.innovateuk.org) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC – www.decc.gov.uk), will support feasibility studies and component technologies development and demonstration projects exploring offshore wind technologies that minimise costs to the UK consumer and ensure the UK economy gains more benefit from increased supply to future projects.

In addition, funding of £1.2m from the Technology Strategy Board and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC – www.nerc.ac.uk) will establish knowledge transfer partnerships to build innovation capability in UK businesses and  stimulate the transfer of expertise from academia to business in the fields of offshore wind, wave, tidal stream and tidal range energy.

Up to £3m will be available for technical feasibility studies to bring new ideas to the offshore wind sector. Applications are encouraged from organisations already in the offshore wind sector, but also from parallel sectors such as oil and gas, defence, aerospace and automotive.  Up to £7m will be invested in projects that relate to the experimental development and demonstration of component technologies of next-generation offshore wind systems.

The competition for feasibility studies opens on 5 November 2012 while the competition for development and demonstration projects will open early that month.  Applications for both competitions must be received by 16 January 2013.  For further information please visit: http://www.innovateuk.org/content/competition/developing-the-offshore-wind-supply-chain.ashx

The call for Knowledge Transfer Partnership funding opens on 13 September 2012 and the deadline for applications is 24 April 2013. For further information please visit: http://www.innovateuk.org/content/competition/developing-the-offshore-renewable-energy-supply-ch.ashx

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TSB – Developing the civil nuclear power supply chain

The Technology Strategy Board and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) are to invest up to £1m to establish new Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) in the field of nuclear technologies for civil power generation, decommissioning and waste management. This targeted call for KTPs is focused specifically on the exchange of knowledge and skills into the nuclear supply chain.

This targeted call is part of a £15m programme and is running in parallel with a £14m investment in nuclear technologies by the Technology Strategy Board, NDA, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Department of Energy and Climate Change through which up to £2m will be invested in feasibility studies to develop new and innovative early-stage technologies and up to £12m in collaborative research and development.

There is an opportunity for feasibility study and collaborative R&D applicants to link their projects to KTP projects where appropriate, although it is not a requirement to do so. TSB welcomes complementary applications, but organisations applying both to this targeted call and for feasibility and collaborative R&D funding should ensure that their proposals can stand alone and are not dependent on both applications being successful. NB: This document provides information on the targeted call for KTPs only.

This UK-wide targeted call for KTPs will help businesses to improve their competitiveness, productivity and performance in the nuclear sector through the better use of the knowledge, technology and skills that are available within the UK knowledge base. It will support the development of innovative technologies that can be used in the assessment, construction, commissioning, operation, maintenance, waste management and decommissioning of civil nuclear plant in a safe, economic and sustainable manner. This targeted call also aims to increase awareness of this tecnology and to ensure that UK industry maintains a world-class innovation capability. Through this investment we aim to:

  • stimulate, improve and promote the adoption of nuclear technologies, developed in the UK knowledge base by businesses across a range of sectors K
  • raise the profile of key UK capabilities in nuclear R&D K
  • encourage greater and more sustainable knowledge exchange across the supply chain through a partnership approach.

TSB aims to establish a group of KTPs through this thematic call that will run together as a cohort, supported by a programme of networking between the partners. The cohort approach will encourage knowledge sharing across projects, potentially giving the businesses involved access to knowledge and expertise held by a range of academic groups with different perspectives on the high-level challenges facing the sector. TSB are part-funding the KTPs. The targeted call opens on 2 July 2012 and the deadline for applications is noon 4 October 2012

 Open date: 02 July 2012

Close date: 04 October 2012Website: www.ktponline.org.uk

Email: KTP_Help@tsb.gov.uk

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FP7 – The Last Call Deadlines

European research and innovation efforts are set to receive a significant increase in funding with the announcement of the largest set of calls for proposals ever under the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Worth a total of EUR 8.1 billion, projects funded by these calls are open to organisations and businesses in all EU Member States, FP7 partner states and specifically eligible countries.

The calls target both innovation and a range of societal challenges, building a bridge to Horizon 2020, the next funding programme for EU research from 2014-2020.

‘Knowledge is the currency of the global economy,’ says European Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. ‘If Europe wants to continue to compete in the 21st century, we must support the research and innovation that will generate growth and jobs, now and in the future. The high level of competition for EU funding makes sure that taxpayers’ money goes to the best projects that tackle issues that concern all of us.’

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have a special place in the current round of calls with a package worth around EUR 1.2 billion. This includes financing for SMEs of around EUR 970 million under the ‘Cooperation’ Theme, where ring-fenced budgets for SMEs will account for up to 75 % of available funding in specific calls. There will also be EUR 250 million for the dedicated SMEs programme ‘Research for the benefit of SMEs’, including demonstration actions for FP7 research results.

Launched in 2007, FP7 has a total budget of EUR 55 billion for research and innovation. It has so far supported some 19,000 projects involving over 79,000 participants (universities, research organisations and businesses) across all EU Member States, with a total EU investment so far of EUR 25.3 billion. By 2013 it is estimated that FP7 will also have directly supported some 55,000 individual researchers’ careers.

EU research funding generates significant added value for Europe. For example, one Euro of EU Framework Programme funding leads to an increase in industry added value of between EUR 7 and EUR 14. Specific areas and topics that will be supported in this round of calls for proposals touch many aspects of daily life, including:
– climate change;
– industrial innovation connected with piloting, demonstration, standardisation and technology transfer;
– research training and mobility around the European Union and further abroad;
– sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors;
– technologies for urban areas and cities;
– combating the threat of drug-resistant bacteria;
– innovative solutions for managing fresh water resources;
– sustainable supply of raw materials to the EU;
– efficiency in the processing of biological resources;
– safe and plentiful food;
– bio-based products and processes;
– new approaches to delivering public services and public policy;
– sustainable, low-carbon urban environments;
– energy supply and volatility;
– combating diseases of the brain like Alzheimer’s, depression and schizophrenia;
– mission-critical space technologies dealing with exploration missions, space weather, space debris and collision threats;
– post-disaster (natural or man-made) crisis management;
– information and communication technologies (ICT) in health-, material- and neuro-sciences and neuro-robotics;
– and more.

To help spread research efforts more widely, a new European Research Area Chairs initiative is being prepared. A EUR 12 million pilot call will select a total of five ERA Chairs, to be hosted by universities or other eligible research institutions in less developed regions of five different EU countries.

Building on the experience of the 2012 work programme, there will be EUR 220 million to promote the use of promising existing research results, whether derived from EU or non-EU funding. This includes support to develop research project results or to build networks-initiatives to make this happen. For example, in transport, there will be up to EUR 4 million to support the transfer of technologies between sectors.

Bringing public and private actors closer together is also the purpose of the European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs) being set up under the Innovation Union action plan. The big challenges Europe faces – such as climate change, energy and food security, health and an ageing population – also present opportunities for new business and the EIPs aim to give the EU a first-mover advantage in these markets. Up to five EIPs will be supported, including the EIP pilot action on Active and Healthy Ageing.

In addition, the European Research Council’s small-scale initiative ‘ERC Proof of Concept’ will continue to help bridging the gap between ERC grant holders’ research results and commercialisation.

ICT will see a boost, with nearly EUR 1.5 billion earmarked to support information and communication technologies-related projects in 2013. The EU will invest in research which strengthens Europe’s scientific and technology base, helps drive and stimulate product, service and process innovation and creativity through ICT use and ensures that ICT progress is rapidly transformed into benefits. Cloud computing is a focal point, with the launch of the European Cloud Partnership (ECP) later in 2012.

The world is in competition for the best brains and ideas. Making Europe a destination for world-class researchers remains a key priority. The European Research Council (ERC) is investing in the very best young and senior researchers, of any nationality, based in or moving to Europe, to carry out their pioneering frontier research projects. By supporting the very best talent in all areas the ERC contributes to creating new jobs for the research community in Europe.

Organisations and researchers from more than 100 countries all over the world are already involved in EU research programmes. In addition to the general integration of international activities right across FP7, there are specific calls to promote bi-regional cooperation and bilateral partnerships with EU-based organisations.

To see the official call announcements, please consult:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/page/fp7_calls

To see partnership requests for these calls, please see the following:
http://cordis.europa.eu/partners/web/guest/calls

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Horizon 2020 – Environmental Calls

Euro-Mediterranean governments aim to tackle the top sources of Mediterranean pollution by the year 2020 through the Horizon 2020 initiative that is built around 4 elements:

  • Projects to reduce the most significant pollution sources focussing on industrial emissions, municipal waste and urban waste water, responsible for up to 80% of pollution in the Mediterranean Sea
  • Capacity-building measures to help neighbouring countries create national environmental administrations that are able to develop and police environmental laws.
  • Using the Commission’s Research budget to develop and share knowledge of environmental issues relevant to the Mediterranean.
  • Developing indicators to monitor the success of Horizon 2020.

The initiative is open to all stakeholders and calls for the mobilisation of the necessary financial resources and the provision of technical support from all partners. All stakeholders are invited to work together to maximise assistance, exploit opportunities and meet the commitments of the timetable.

A Horizon 2020 Web-Site has been created under the Mediterranean Environment Programme to provide updated, detailed technical information on the project components.

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European Commission Horizon 2020 (FP8) Funding Programme – Official Documents

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FP7 Research for the benefits of SMEs (R4S) and Research for the Benefit of SME Associations (R4A) Calls are in November!

European Commission yesterday announced the deadlines for FP7 Research for the benefits of SMEs (R4S) and Research for the Benefit of SME Associations (R4A) as 15th November 2012.

You can download the relevant files from the links below:

Click to download file  Language
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Horizon 2020 – Good news on the Horizon for Irish SMEs

The new programme, Horizon 2020, has a proposed budget of €90bn. The programme will support research towards excellent science, competitive industries and better society. It will build on the current Framework Seven programme with outstanding schemes such as the Marie Curie Actions and European Research Council. The good news is that Europe’s ministers for science have approved the general structure of the programme.

The Euroscience Open Forum 2012 (ESOF 2012) also takes place on July 11th to 15th in Dublin. Over the five days there will be a wide range of sessions focusing on EU research policy and funding. The European Commission will also host a conference for Marie Curie funded researchers on July 10th and 11th. The European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn will launch the final call for applications in Framework Seven on July 11th in Dublin. It will have the largest budget to date at an estimated €9 billion; this is an opportunity not to be missed by researchers and companies in Ireland.

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Eurostars Funding Deadline Published!

The cut-off date:

EUREKA’s Eurostars Programme is open for funding applications on a continuous basis, with an average of two application submission deadlines each year.

The next deadline for the submission of applications is
Next Deadline:    Thursday 20th September 2012 20h00 C.E.S.T.

 
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