The New Horizon Program 2020 Announcement 2014/2015

Contents and structure of the Horizon 2020 program

The new Horizon 2020 program is a financial instrument created by the European Union for funding research and innovation, to ensure Europe's competitiveness.

The new program will be valid from 1st January 2014 until 31st December 2020 and will support the European Union in the global challenges by providing to researchers and innovators the necessary tools for the realisation of their projects and ideas.

The income of Horizon 2020 amounts to a total of € 70.2 billion Euro.

Horizon 2020 is characterised by three elements:

1. Scientific excellence, which represents 32% of the total budget (22, 3 billion Euro). Its main objective is to raise the level of excellence in Europe's science base and ensure a constant production of world-class research to ensure Europe's competitiveness in the long term. It is divided into four programs:

• The European Research Council which supports the most talented and creative individuals and their teams in carrying out frontier research of the highest quality;
• Future and Emerging Technologies, which funds collaborative research to open new promising fields of research and innovation
• Actions Marie Sklodowska Curie, which offers to the researcher excellent training and career opportunities by supporting the mobility.
• Research infrastructure, which ensures for Europe the usage of worldwide research infrastructures (including online electronic infrastructures) accessible to all researcher in Europe and in other countries.

2.  Industrial Leadership, which represents 22% of the total budget (15,5 billion Euro). It will bring big investments to essential industrial technologies, and encourage the potential growth of European companies by providing them with adequate levels of funding and help innovative SME to become leading companies world-wide. It is divided into three programs:

• Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies (eg nanotechnology, microelectronics and biotechnology);
• Access to risk capital,  that aims to overcome the deficit in the availability of credit and funds for R&D sector, innovative companies and projects in all stages of development;
• Innovation of the SME, which promote all forms of innovations, with a particular interest on those with a potential of growth on the international single market and others. This activity only foresees funding to support the research.

3.  Societal challenges, with 39% of the allocated budget (27 billion Euro) determines a challenge-based approach, bringing together resources and knowledge from a variety of sectors, technologies and disciplines, including social sciences and humanities. It is divided into seven programs:

• health
• demographical changes and wellness
• food safety
• sustainable agriculture
• marine/maritime research
• bio-economy, intelligent/green/integrated  transport;
• climate action/resource efficiency/raw materials.

Announcement 2014-2015

Overall, the budget allocated by the Commission for 2014-2015 is about 15 billion Euro of which approximately € 7.8 billion for 2014, divided as shown below:

• scientific excellence: € 3 billion;
• industrial leadership: € 1.8 billion;
• societal challenge: € 2.8 billion

Participants

• any legal entity, university or research center established in a Member State or associated or in a third country;
• international organisations of EU interest
• international organisation and entities established in third countries (in addition to the minimum conditions);
• entities without legal personality provided with financial and contractual liability borne by the legal representatives
• non-profit legal entities

Beneficiaries

• any legal entity, university or research center established in a Member State or associated * or in a third country;
• ICPC countries
• international organisation of EU interest
• international organisations and entities established in third countries not ICPC, only if required by the Work Programme and bilateral agreements or if it’s of extreme necessity for the action

Minimum conditions for participation

• requires the presence of at least three legal entities
• each of them must be established in a Member State or a different associated country
• all three legal entities must be independent of each other

There are exceptions, namely the presence of at least one legal entity established in a State

member or an associated country, in relation to:

• actions of frontier research of the European Research Council (ERC);
• SME instrument (with clear European added value)
• co-financing of research programs
• coordination and support
• Marie Curie
• where it is indicated by the work program or work plans

How to participate

The first step of the process of participation in tenders Horizon 2020 is to verify the contents of the call to identify the issues closest to their project idea and / or competence.

The content that must meet the proposals are declined in the work programme according to these three elements:

• specific challenge: defines the context, the problem to be dealt with, because it is necessary to intervene
• scope: outlines the issue that must be dealt with in the project, specifies the focus and boundaries
• expected impact: describes the expected impact of the project.

The different calls and its contents and expiration dates are reported in the European portal dedicated to Horizon 2020.

Main elements of the simplification

• A system of account regarding minimal costs is expected through the foresight of internal accounting
• Single reimbursement rate for all participants and activities;
• Use of personnel’s unit costs and simplification of the record of the hours worked;
• Unique flat rate for indirect costs of 25%
• Optimisation of the role of the executive agencies (abolition of charging time for full time staff on EU projects);
• A 5-month reduction of the evaluation from the submission of the proposal
• A 3-month reduction of the time-to-grant of about 3 months (1/3 of the current situation);
• Two reimbursement rates: EU contribution up to 100% of direct costs for basic research, applied research, technological development and integration, testing and validation of prototypes of small-scale or laboratory environments, simulations research; EU contribution up to 70% (100% for non-profit organisations) in direct costs for prototyping, testing, demonstration, experimental development, pilot projects, the first commercial applications.

Criteria for evaluation of the project being financed

• Excellence
• Impact
• Innovation’s quality and efficiency

Why participate in the project Horizon 2020

Participation in the project Horizon 2020 has several advantages:

• access to financing
• increased visibility at European level
• coaching for one’s own business and management
• preferential access to future financing

Avv. Martina Chiello