The European Framework programmes offer funding opportunities for the best in class research and innovation. Their raison d’être is to produce excellent science and technology and remove barriers to innovation, so contributing to European economic prosperity and competitiveness.
The advantages of participating to such a programme go beyond simply money; it is about prestige, networking, working with the best players on the field, career development, impact on European people’s lives, future market opportunities. That is why Luxinnovation encourages and supports the participation of Luxembourgish stakeholders.
However, Horizon 2020, as the name suggests, will come to an end in 2020. Nevertheless, the European Commission is working on the new Framework Programme, Horizon Europe. Even if there is no revolution, but an evolution, some novelties will be introduced in the structure and in the implementation.
Some highlights:
- Horizon Europe will be starting in just over 1 year
- Horizon Europe’s keywords are “Missions” and “Partnerships”
- Horizon Europe is going to gradually introduce “Lump Sum” grants with the aim to simplify the financial reporting required (see Luxinnovation’s guidelines here)
Horizon Europe is about climate, digitalisation, the transition to a circular economy, about delivering on the United Nations’ Sustainable development Goals and about R&I as essential tools to strengthen European competitiveness.
This document summarises the main features of Horizon Europe publicly available so far. Keep in mind that the official legal document establishing the final version of the programme has still to be signed, so it can still undergo some changes and the elements described can evolve over time, especially regarding the budget.
The funding is indeed currently being debated by the Member States and currently, the proposed amount for Horizon Europe stands at €94.1 billion. However, this might change during future negotiations.
The figure below displays the preliminary structure of Horizon Europe (HEU) and the tentative budget assigned to each sub-programme. Furthermore, each part of the structure is described more in details trying to make some comparison with the previous programme where possible. Then, a description of missions and partnerships is given together with their main features, followed by a section listing some of the possible novelties in the implementation if they will be approved. Finally, a timeline is drawn to give the idea of the steps still to be done and their timing in order to have the Horizon Europe Framework programme launched.
