Overview;

Total Budget: €77,03 billion

Thematic Categories: Research, Innovation, Technologies, Social affairs / Energy, Environment, Health, Industry, Information and Communication Technologies, Justice, Security, Social Affairs, and Human Rights, Space, Telecommunications, Transport, Youth, Economic growth and competitiveness

Beneficiaries: Research Institution, Education and Training Centres, Lobby Group / Professional Association / Trade Union, State / Region / City / Municipality / Local Authority, International Organization, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, SMEs (between 10 and 249 employees), Microenterprises (fewer than 10 employees), NGO / NPO, Public Services, Start Up Company, University, Enterprise (more than 250 employees or not defined), Association, National Government

Link: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en

The next Framework Programme:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/horizon-europe-next-research-and-innovation-framework-programme_en

Standard Eligibility Conditions;

  • Research & innovation actions (RIA); At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. Funding rate: 100% – Consortia of partners from different countries, industry and academia.
  • Innovation actions (IA); At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. Funding rate: 70% (except for non-profit legal entities, where a rate of 100% applies) Consortia of partners from different countries, industry and academia.
  • Coordination & support actions (CSA); At least one legal entity established in an EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. Funding rate: 100% – Single entities or consortia of partners from different countries, industry and academia
  • ERA-NET Co-fund actions; At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. Participants in ERA-NET Co-fund actions must be legal entities owning or managing public research and innovation programmes Funding rate: 33%
  • Stand-alone researchers in the fields of European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Marie-Curie Programme
  • Stand-alone enterprises in the field of Innovation in SMEs, SME Instrument. Only SMEs can participate. Either a single SME or a consortium of SMEs established in an EU or Associated Country

Additional Information; Depends on the length of the project One pre-financing, One or several interim payments or One payment of the balance options are available. Pre-Financing option is valid depending on the duration of the project (Please refer “Financial Guidelines for Applicants” Subject to the successful conclusion of negotiations, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) will play an important role in implementing each financial instrument facility in partnership with the European Commission.

Programme co-fund is to supplement individual calls or programmes. For example:

  • Calls for proposals between national research programmes (ERA-NET co-fund);
  • Calls for tenders for Pre-Commercial Public Procurements Or Public Procurement of Innovative solutions (PCP-PPI co-fund);
  • Mobility programmes (Marie Skłodowska-Curie co-fund)

Priorities of the year can be found in annual work programme.

Tips for Applicants; Compared to FP7 simplification has lowered the administrative burden for participants and led to large reductions in the time to grant nevertheless new program will aim for further simplification and reduction of administrative burden for participants. Horizon 2020 has large-scale oversubscription and low success rate however the proposal evaluation process is generally highly regarded.