Horizon 2020: the biggest EU Research and Innovation grant programme
Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. The purpose of Horizon 2020 is to foster the growth of breakthrough technologies, inventions and advanced developments by the promotion of scientific ideas from the laboratories to the market.
Programme includes 3 main directions: excellent science, industrial leadership and societal challenges. Horizon 2020 combines the funding of research and innovations on the EU level, proposes a single set of facilitated rules and radically reduces the volume of bureaucratic procedures.
How to get funding?
Two year work programmes announce the specific areas that will be funded by Horizon 2020. Look out for them on the online Participant Portal as they can be used as a calendar for the calls for proposals (‘calls’), to be published during the year. The Participant Portal is your entry point for electronic administration of EU-funded research and innovation projects, and hosts the services for managing your proposals and projects throughout their lifecycle.
The Participant Portal has clear instructions to guide you through the process.
Once the deadline has passed, all proposals are evaluated by a panel of independent specialists in their fields. The panel checks each proposal against a list of criteria to see if it should receive funding.
Once a proposal passes the evaluation stage (4-5 months’ duration), applicants are informed about the outcome. The European Commission then draws up a grant agreement with each participant.
More info: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/
