Aberdeen University
14 November 2013
Edward Ricketts
edward.ricketts@bbsrc.ac.uk

UKRO’s Mission:
“To promote effective UK engagement in EU research,
innovation and higher education activities”

The Office:
• Is based in Brussels, was established in 1984
• Is sponsored by the seven UK Research Councils
• Around 130 research organisations subscribe to UKRO

UKRO Portal: tailored news articles and clear and accessible web
pages on the latest in EU funding

Enquiry service: individual support through your dedicated
European Advisor

Annual briefing visits: bespoke training for your institution

Meeting room: a venue in Brussels

UKRO training and development programme: complementing
annual visits

UKRO Annual Conference: a key event for EU policy and
networking

UK National Contact Point: for the Marie Curie Actions and the
European Research Council

European RTD Insight: Free monthly publication funded by the
British Council

The EU funding programme for research and innovation
from 2014 to 2020
• Budget of €70.2 billion
• From research to innovation – from basic research to bringing
ideas to the market
• Focus on societal challenges EU society is facing (e.g. health,
clean energy, food security, integrated transport)
• Promise of simplified access for all

As at July 2013:
• UK-based organisations have been awarded €5.2 billion of FP7 funding,
(the second highest share by country, after Germany), equivalent to 15%
of the programme’s overall budget
• Academic organisations were awarded 62% of this share (thus 10.9% of
the entire FP7 budget went to UK academia), and around 17% to SMEs
• UK organisations were involved in around 8100 funded projects (the
highest number by country)
• The highest number of European Research Council grants went to the UK,
with around 800 grants based at over 75 different host institutions
FP7





Framework Programme
Research themes
SME participation important
Growing importance of
innovation
Range of funding rates,
complex rules
Horizon 2020





Integrates FP, EIT, CIP
Societal Challenges
Strong industry focus
overall
Covering the entire cycle
from basic idea to market
Single reimbursement
rate for all
Excellent
Science
Industrial
Leadership
Societal
Challenges
Health and Wellbeing
European Research
Council (ERC)
Future and Emerging
Technologies (FET)
Leadership in Enabling
and Industrial
Technologies (LEIT) ICT, KETs, Space
Food security
Transport
Energy
Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Actions (MSCA)
Climate action
Access to Risk Finance
Research Infrastructures
Societies
Security
Innovation in SMEs
Widening Participation; Science with and for Society
European Institute of Innovation
and Technology (EIT)
EURATOM
Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Challenge-based, aims to allow freedom to come up with
innovative solutions

Fewer topics but broader, less prescriptive topics

Cross-cutting issues embedded (e.g. social sciences,
gender, INCO)

Simplified presentation (“common look and feel”)

Aim to be relevant to wider range of participants and to
provide easy access to newcomers

28 EU Member States (Croatia joined in 2013)

Associate Countries (similar list to FP7 expected)
• Still under negotiation
• Some might not sign agreement in time for Horizon 2020 start
but can still apply as long as the agreement is signed in time
for grant signature.

Third countries (funding will depend on GDP)
• BRIC countries no longer eligible for automatic funding
Pillar 1 – Excellent Science

The ERC seeks to fund the best ‘frontier research’ proposals
submitted by excellent researchers in the area of their choice.

Will fund projects led by a Principal Investigator, if necessary
supported by a research team (no requirement for collaboration
or forming consortia across different EU countries).

25 panels in 3 domains which proposals can be submitted to:
 Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE)
 Life Sciences (LS)
 Social Sciences and Humanities (SH)
Starting Grants
(for PIs 2-7 years since PhD, up to €2 million for 5 years)
Consolidator Grants
Advanced Grants
Synergy Grants
(for PIs 7-12 years since PhD, up to €2.75 million for 5 years)
(for leading researchers, up to €3.5 million for 5 years)
(for 2 to 4 PIs, up to €15 million for 6 years)
Proof of Concept (for ERC grant holders only, up to €150,000 for 1 year)
Starting Grants
Who is a competitive candidate?
Must be able to show potential for excellence and evidence of maturity:
• expectation for at least one important publication without the
participation of the PhD supervisor
• promising track record of early achievements appropriate to field and
career stage, including:
• significant publications (as main author) in major international
peer-reviewed journals
• and/or monographs
• invited presentations, granted patents, awards, prizes etc
• good leadership potential and must convince the ERC panel that the
PI will be able to lead an ambitious ‘frontier research’ project
Proposals evaluated solely on the basis of excellence
(excellence of the PI and of the research project), and should
address:
Extended Synopsis (5 pages)
Scientific Proposal (15 pages)
•
•
•
•
To what extent does the proposed research address important challenges?
To what extent are the objectives ambitious and beyond the state of the art?
How much is the proposed research high risk/high gain?
To what extent is the outlined scientific approach feasible?
•
To what extent is the proposed research methodology appropriate to achieve the
goals of the project?
To what extent does the proposal involve developing novel methodology?
To what extent are the proposed timescales and resources necessary and properly
justified?
•
•
* please note that this is the wording from the 2013 ERC calls
Starting Grants:
opens 11 December 2013, deadline 25 March 2014
Consolidator Grants:
opens 11 December 2013, deadline 20 May 2014
Advanced Grants: opens 17 June 2014, deadline 21 October 2014
Synergy Grants: no call launched in 2014
Proof of Concept: opens 11 December 2013, two deadlines on 1 April and
1 October 2014
Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Actions

Operates in a ‘bottom-up’ basis, open to all research
and innovation areas

Mobility is a key requirement

Key areas supported:
•
•
•
•
Fostering new skills by means of excellent initial training of
researchers
Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector
mobility
Stimulating innovation by means of cross-fertilisation of
knowledge
Co-funding of activities
FP7
ITN
Horizon 2020
ITN
Innovative Training Networks
(Early Stage Researchers)
IEF
IOF
IIF
IF
Individual Fellowships
(Experienced Researchers)
CIG
IAPP
IRSES
COFUND
RISE
COFUND
Research and Innovation Staff Exchange
(Exchange of Staff)
Cofunding or regional, national and
international programmes

Major differences compared to FP7
• Participants defined as ‘academic’ and ‘non-academic’
• Early stage researchers (ESRs) only
• The Innovative Doctoral Programme strand moved to the COFUND
scheme

The ITN scheme consists of 3 strands
European Training
Networks (minimum of 3
participants)
European Joint
Doctorates (at least 3
academic participants
who can deliver a
doctoral degree)
European Industrial
Doctorates (1 academic
participant and 1 nonacademic participant)
European and Reintegration
Fellowships
•12-24 months
Global Fellowships
•From any country to MS/AC
•12-24 months plus 12 month return
phase
•Host country is subject to the MSCA
mobility rule
•Secondment from MS/AC to third
country
•(Reintegration Fellowship only)
mobility to Europe, researcher must
have been a long-term resident (at
least 3 years) in Europe
•Mandatory 12 month return phase in
Europe (not subject to mobility rule)
•(European Fellowship only) separate
multi-disciplinary career break panel

Mobility rule for the career re-start panel “researchers shall not have resided or
carried out their main activity in the country of their host organisation for more than
3 years in the 5 years immediately prior to the relevant deadline”
Call
Opens
Closes
Budget
ITN 2014
11 Dec 2013
8 April 2014
350 M
IF 2014
11 Dec 2013
10 April 2014
175 M
NIGHT 2014
11 Dec 2013
4 March 2014
7.8 M
COFUND 2014
8 July 2014
18 Nov 2014
80 M
ITN 2015
2 Sep 2014
21 Jan 2015
386 M
RISE 2015
30 Sep 2014
15 Jan 2015
80 M
IF 2015
11 Dec 2014
14 April 2015
190 M


Expanded from ICT and Energy to be used as cross-cutting funding
scheme
Supports frontier research: alternative ideas, concepts or paradigms of
risky or non-conventional nature
Open, light and agile
FET Open
•‘Fostering novel ideas’
•Individual research
projects
•Early ideas
•Coordination and support
activities
Roadmap based research
FET Proactive
•‘Nurturing emerging
themes and communities’
•Open research clusters
•2 topics: Global Systems
Science (GSS); Knowing,
doing being: cognition
beyond problem solving
High-Performance Computing (HPC) Strategy
Developing the next generation towards exascale
3 call topics
FET Flagships
•‘Tackling grand
Interdisciplinary science
and technology challenges’
•Common research agendas
•Graphene
•Human Brain
•Support to Flagships
Pillar 2 – Industrial Leadership


Strong focus on industrial involvement and applied
research
Developing industrial capacity in focus areas:
• Key Enabling Technologies (KETs)






Micro- and nano-electronics
Photonics
Nanotechnologies
Advanced Materials
Biotechnology
Advanced Manufacturing and Processing

JTIs support large-scale multinational research activities in
areas of major interest to European industrial competitiveness
and issues of high societal relevance

Long-term public-private partnerships - combining private
sector investment with European public funding and
sometimes also national funding

Set up as separate legal entity (Joint Undertaking)

Led by industry, but open to new partners from
universities and research institutes

Calls launched and managed by the Joint Undertaking

Same reimbursement rate as in rest of Horizon 2020
will apply (some derogations)
“Improving the health and well-being of European citizens by
providing new and more effective diagnostics and medicines,
while helping safeguard the international competitiveness of the
European biopharmaceutical industry.”





Increase the success rate in clinical trials of priority
medicines Reduce the time to reach clinical proof of
concept in medicine development
Develop new therapies for diseases for which there is a
high unmet need
Develop diagnostic and treatment biomarkers for diseases
clearly linked to clinical relevance and approved by
regulators
Reduce the failure rate of vaccine candidates in phase III
clinical trials
Improve the current drug development process
JTIs
• Bio-Based Industries
• Clean Sky2
• Electronic Components and Systems (ECSEL)
• Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH2)
• Innovative Medicines (IMI2)
New generation of
components and
systems
Content
technologies and
information
management
Advanced
Computing
Future Internet
Robotics
Micro- and
nano-electronic
technologies/
Photonics
Cross-cutting and horizontal activities and International
Co-operation
See draft 2014 Work Programme at:
http://www.ukro.ac.uk/subscriber/Pages/131107_draft_ict_wp_public.aspx
Future Internet
Public Private
Partnership

Health: e-health, self management of health, improved diagnostics, improved
surveillance, health data collection, active ageing, assisted living;
• “Advancing active and healthy ageing with ICT: Service robotics within assisted living
environments”
• “Advancing active and healthy ageing with ICT: early risk detection and intervention”
•
“Advanced ICT systems and services for integrated care”
• “self-management of health and disease: decisional support systems and patient
empowerment supported by ICT

Food:
• Ocean observation technologies “Acoustic and imaging technologies”
• “Forecasting and anticipating effects of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture”
• “Improved data and management models for sustainable forestry”








Replaces Research for Benefit of SMEs scheme
Dedicated SME instrument
Target highly innovative SMEs looking to develop and grow
in international environment
Funding awarded to single company, but projects can be
collaborative
Allows for outsourcing of research
Three-stage support through innovation cycle
One project can access all three in order
One application per year

Stage 1: Feasibility
• 6 month project
• ~ €50k lump sum funding
• to assess technological / commercial potential of project

Stage 2: Innovation Activity
• 12 – 24 month duration
• €1m - €3m funding
• Emphasis on demonstration and market replication

Stage 3: Commercialisation phase
• No direct funding
• Simplified access to debt and equity financial instruments
• Assistance with IPR protection
Pillar 3 – Societal Challenges

Concerns of citizens and society + EU policy objectives

Breakthrough solutions come from multi-disciplinary
collaborations, including social sciences and humanities

Addressing challenges requires full research &
innovation cycle, from research to market

Focus on policy priorities without predetermining
technologies or types of solutions to be developed
Personalising
health and
care
Sustainable
food security
Blue growth
Smart cities
and
communities
Competitive
low-carbon
energy
Energy
efficiency
Mobility for
growth
Waste
Water
innovation
Overcoming
the crisis
Disaster
resilience
Digital security
Health
Personalising Health and Care
Food security
Sustainable Food Security, Blue Growth, Innovative,
Sustainable and Inclusive Bioeconomy
Energy
Energy Efficiency, Low Carbon Energy, Smart Cities and
Communities
Sept
Transport
Mobility for Growth, Smart Cities and Communities, Blue
Growth
June
Climate Action
Waste, Water Innovation, Disaster Resilience
Societies
Overcoming the Crisis, Smart Cities and Communities
Security
Digital Security, Disaster Resilience
Dec
H2020 Context – Health Challenge
~ 25%
• “Effective health promotion, supported by a robust
evidence base, prevents disease, contributes to
wellbeing and contains costs”
• Societal challenge to adjust to further demands on
health and care sectors – support integrated care
Specific Priorities
1. Understanding health, wellbeing and disease
o
o
o
Understanding the determinants of health, improving health
promotion and disease prevention
Improved understanding of health and disease
Improving surveillance and preparedness
2. Preventing Disease
o
o
o
Developing effective prevention and screening programmes
+ assessment of disease susceptibility
Improving diagnostics and prognosis
Better preventive and therapeutic vaccines
Specific Priorities
3. Treating and managing disease
o
o
Treating disease, including developing regenerative medicine
Transferring knowledge to clinical practice and scalable
innovation actions
4. Active ageing and self-management of health
o
o
Active ageing, independent and assisted living
Individual awareness and empowerment for selfmanagement of health
Specific Priorities
5. Methods and data
o
o
o
Improving health information and better use of health data
Improving scientific tools and methods to support policy
making and regulatory needs
Using in-silico medicine for improving disease management
and prediction
6. Health care provision and integrated care
o
Promoting integrated care
o
Optimising efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare
provision and reducing inequalities by evidence-based
decision making
2014-2015 Calls divided into 8 specific activity areas:
• Understanding health, aging and diseases
• Effective health promotion, diseases prevention, preparedness and
screening
• Improving diagnosis
• Innovative treatments and technologies
• Advancing active and healthy aging
• Integrated, sustainable, citizen-centred care
• Improving health information, data exploitation and providing an
evidence base for health policies and regulation
• Co-ordination activities e.g. AHA EIP; More years, Better Lives;
Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases
The Leadership in
Industrial and Enabling
Technologies
Societal Challenge 2
Societal Challenge
-6
Societal Challenge 7
1. Scale-up of
nanomedicine
production
2. Networking of SMEs
in the nanobiomedical sector
3. Biomaterials for the
treatment of
diabetes mellitus
4. Nanomedicine
therapy for cancer
5. Biomaterials for
treatment and
prevention of
Alzheimer’s
diseases
1. Assessing the
health risks of
combined human
exposure to
multiple foodrelated toxic
substances
2. Improving the
control of
infectious
epidemics and
foodborne
outbreaks through
rapid identification
of pathogens
3. Tackling
malnutrition in the
elderly
1. Always more
inequalities? New
views on equality,
solidarity and
democracy
2. Early job insecurity
and labour market
exclusion
3. Youth mobility:
opportunities,
impacts, policies
4. Inclusive and
sustainable urban
planning for a
modern society
1. Feasibility study
for strengthening
capacity-building
and security
protection in case
of large-scale
pandemics
2. Crises and disaster
resilience –
operationalizing
resilience concepts
Horizon 2020 Health - Context
EIP Active and Healthy Ageing
Health for Growth
Health, Demographic
Change and Wellbeing
Ambient
Assisted
Living
Research
Innovation
Structural
Funds
Deployment

Initiatives led by EU Member States which combine
aspects of national research programmes

Address major societal challenges

Aim to reduce fragmentation and avoid duplication

10 JPIs have been established to date

JPIs establish Strategic Research Agendas and are likely
to have an influence on Horizon 2020 work programme
development

Seeks to improve coordination and collaboration between European and
national research programmes related to demographic change

= National research councils pooling funding and launching joint calls. First
joint activity launched in early 2013, on mapping the range of data sources
on ageing in Europe.

Definition of demographic change covers: health to social welfare,
education & learning, work & productivity to housing, urban & rural
development and mobility.

13 European countries are currently participating, including the UK through
the ESRC. See: http://www.jp-demographic.eu/ for more details.

Initiatives which bring together wide range of partners to address a
particular societal challenge. Not a funding instrument.

Overarching target of the EIP AHA is to increase, by 2020, the
average healthy lifespan in the EU by 2 years.

Strategic Implementation Plan identifies 14 priority areas. Action
Groups and online ‘Marketplace’ are up and running.

EIP aims and objectives will be reflected in Horizon 2020 work
programmes.

See EIP AHA website: http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovationunion/index_en.cfm?section=active-healthy-ageing





Innovative Medicines Initiative homepage http://www.imi.europa.eu/
European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials
Partnership homepage - http://www.edctp.org/
More Years Better Lives homepage - http://www.jpdemographic.eu/
Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Disease homepage http://www.jp-demographic.eu/
Joint Programme on Antimicrobial Resistance homepage http://www.jpiamr.eu/
How to get involved

Publication of work programmes and calls for proposals:
• The first work programmes will cover 2014 and 2015
• The first calls are expected to be launched in December

Work programmes explain what is funded (topics, grant
schemes) and the expected policy impact

Calls for proposals give details on the timeline
(deadline, evaluation, results) and the eligibility criteria






Check the Horizon 2020 draft work programmes - do they cover your
research area?
Activate your current networks – do you need to expand them?
Who are the key players? Who has been involved in previous projects?
Check FP7 Projects http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/projects_en.html
Attend EC information days, events & conferences
Join the EU evaluators database
(http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/page/experts)
Check out partner searches: UKRO can distribute partner profiles / National Contact
Points (NCPs) / IDEAL-IST (ICT research), Fit for Health (Health research), NET4SOCIETY
(SSH research) / Enterprise Europe Network / Social Media? (Linked-in etc) / IGLO partner
search (Informal Group of European RTD liaison offices)

Some areas, such as Marie Curie, ERC and FET Open are bottom-up
Sign up to the UKRO portal and you will receive:
 Updates on the likely funding priorities for Horizon 2020 in
each planned area
 Updates on key events
 Updates on call dates and management/financial issues
 Updates on opportunities to feed in to the programme’s
development (i.e. formation of expert advisory groups,
evaluator registration, other calls for expressions of interest)
 ‘UKRO understands’: early information
 New: UKRO Horizon 2020 Factsheets!
Practical aspects of Horizon
2020

Single funding rate per project:
• 100% for research projects
• 70% for innovation projects (100% for non-profit organisations
including universities)
• Rate and type of project defined in the Work Programme

Indirect costs: flat rate of 25%

No time sheets for staff working full-time on Horizon 2020
projects

Shorter time to grant (5+3 months)

Promise of broader acceptance of participants’ accounting
practices

Promise of risk and fraud prevention based audit strategy

One audit certificate (Certificate on the Financial
Statements) at the end of each project per beneficiary

New features to include:
• Simpler and more user-friendly presentation of calls
• Improved search function (including keywords) for specific calls and topics
• ‘Context-related’ presentation of call documents

Improved grant management facilities:
• No further paper submissions of documents
• Improved ‘My Projects’ section featuring new project dashboard, clearer
notifications of tasks and better access to grant documents
• EC Project Officer details to be indicated next to each project
• More flexibility for organisations to determine access rights and signatories
☓
Calls
SEARCH TOPICS
FUNDING GUIDE
Horizon 2020
COSME
Search keywords:
climate change
Search
Search Topics
Call Updates
Other Funding Opportunities
Previous Framework
Programmes (FP7 & CIP)
Horizon 2020 predefined criteria:
Cross-cutting Key-Enabling Technologies (KETs) 
International cooperation 
ERA-NET 
SME Instrument 
Gender 
Socio-economic science and Humanities 
3 results
Filter options:
◎ Open calls
○ Closed calls
○ Forthcoming calls
Sort by:
○Publication date
◎Deadline
○Title
○Call ID
Topic: SFS 7 - 2014: Optimising external nutrient inputs in intensive crop production systems in Europe
European crop production is facing more and more difficulties in remaining competitive in the global
market for many reasons. One of these reasons is certainly the high cost of external nutrient inputs
necessary
More…
Call title: Sustainable Food Security
Call identifier: H2020-SFS-2014/2015
Status: Open
Deadline: 2014-03-18
Topic: WATER 2 – 2014/2015: Integrated approaches to water and climate change
The rising demands of a growing world population for food, water, materials and energy will put
increasing pressures on land use, water resources and ecosystems. Energy consumption is expected
to increase,
More…
Call title: Water Innovation: Boosting its value for Europe
Call identifier: H2020-WATER-2014/2015
Status: Open
Deadline: 2014-03-18
Topic: WATER 5 – 2014/2015: Strengthening international R&I cooperation in the field of water
Stay informed
RSS feed 
iCal 
Email notification 
Developing countries, especially in Africa, are facing serious challenges for sustaining its
development. Sustainable water supply and sanitation is fundamental to the food security, health,
survival
More…
Call title: Water Innovation: Boosting its value for Europe
Call identifier: H2020-WATER-2014/2015
Status: Open
Deadline: 2014-03-18
☓
Calls
HORIZON 2020 CALLS
FUNDING GUIDE
Horizon 2020
COSME
Call: Water innovation: boosting its value for Europe
WATER 1 – 2014/2015
Search Topics
Topic: Bridging the gap from innovative water
Call Updates
solutions
Topic
Descriptionto
marketTopic
replication
Conditions
Call Documents
Submission Service
Other Funding Opportunities
Specific challenge: One of the main factors hampering the market uptake of innovative solutions in the field of water
Previous Framework
Programmes (FP7 & CIP)
is the lack of real scale demonstration of their long term viability. In addition, highly promising and advanced ecoinnovative water technologies, processes, products and services often do not reach the market due to precommercialisation challenges and the residual risk linked to scaling-up. The first Strategic Implementation Plan of the
European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Water has identified as priority areas: water reuse and recycling; water and
wastewater treatment, including recovery of resources; water and energy integration; flood and drought risk
management; and the role of ecosystem services in the provision of water related services.
Scope: Actions should address one or more of the following:
• demonstration/pilot activities of new or improved innovative water solutions (technologies, processes,
products and/or services) in a real environment
• the first application and market replication of near commercial water solutions.
They should focus on the priorities identified in the first Strategic Implementation Plan of the European Innovation
Partnership (EIP) on Water, and/or helping process industries become less water dependant while ensuring efficient
management of other resources (e.g. raw materials and energy), and/or exploiting untapped potential of ICT by
developing and deploying advanced ICT solutions for water resources management in agriculture and urban areas.
Expected impact: Wide and fast deployment of eco-innovation in the water sector in line with the priority areas of the
Stay informed
RSS feed 
iCal 
Email notification 
EIP 'Water'. Support to the objectives of the Sustainable Process Industries Public-private Partnership (SPIRE PPP), in
particular helping process industries to view water as a highly valuable asset rather than a consumable. Market
penetration, long-term application and sustained use of successful solutions by various end-users, and creation of new
market opportunities both inside and outside Europe. Increased resource efficiency and environmental performance of
the water sector, through synergies between public water authorities, water utilities, various economic sectors, big
companies, SMEs and research organisations.
Type of action: Innovation actions (70%)
Any
questions?