HORIZON 2020
Introduction – What is in for you?
Dr. Thies Wittig

Our topics:
• Some basics
• From FP7 to H2020
• The new H2020 Structure
• Project types, participation rules, financial aspects
• Evaluation procedures
Once we are through the formalities, some guidance notes before you try to get into H2020

Characteristics of EU R&D Activities
 Transnational collaboration (min. 3 partners/3 countries)
 Open to all: Industry, SMEs, Universities,…)
 Consortia selected via Calls for Proposals and evaluation procedures involving a set of multiple criteria and independent experts
 Strategic objectives - programme oriented
 Innovative, based on science & technology excellence
 Competitive - competition of the best teams in EU
 RTD results are the property of the participants

… before we start
What is a proposal and what is a project ?
– A Proposal is document similar to the DoW that describes the aims and objectives of such partnership.
– It covers the scientific/technical aspects, a concrete management/work plan and describes how the results will be used after the end of the project (exploitation) and what the long-term impacts are.

… before we start
– A Project consists of a group of different organisation that jointly work to achieve a given goal, funded by the EC.
– This goal and the steps needed to achieve it is described in the Description of Work ( DoW ) that is part of the contract with the EC.

From FP7 to H2020
FP7 is the Seventh Framework Programme for
Research and Technological Development. It was running from 2007 to 2013.
It had a funding budget of around 55 bn Euro.
The new Framework Programme started on
1/1/2014 and runs again for 7 years: HORIZON2020
The funding budget is now 72 bn Euro

FP Budget Development
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10 FP7 H2020
0
1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008 2011 2014 2017 2020

From FP7 to H2020
With that budget H2020 is much bigger than FP7, however it combines the current CIP (3.6 bn Euro) and the old FP7.
Will H2020 be very different to FP7 ?
Is there anything radically new in H2020 ?

The old FP7 COOPERATION Programme
1 Health
2 Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology
3 Information and Communication Technologies
4
Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and new
Production Technologies
5 Energy
6
Environment (including Climate Change)
7 Transport (including Aeronautics)
8
Socio-economic Sciences and the Humanities
9
Space
10 Security

The new Societal Challenges
1 Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing
2
Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture, Marine & Maritime
Research & Bio-Economy
3 Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy
5 Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials
4 Smart, Green and Integrated Transport
6
Inclusive Societies
7 Secure societies

The new Leadership in Industrial Technologies - LEIT
1
2
3 1. Information and Communication Technologies
4
2. Nanosciences & technologies, 4. Materials and
5. Manufacturing
5
6
7
8
9
10
6. Space

The old FP7 Structure
COOPERATION - 65%
THEMES (Topics)
IDEAS - 15%
European Research Council
ERC
PEOPLE - 9%
Marie Curie Measures
CAPACITIES - 8%
Development of Research Policies

The new H2020 Structure
Leadership in Enabling and Industrial
Technologies - LEIT 24%
Enabling Technologies
Excellent Science 33%
• European Research Council
• FET
• Marie Curie
• Research Infrastructures
Societal Challenges 43%
Innovation in SMEs
Access to Risk Finance

The H2020 Structure
Important: the clear boundary between the sub-programmes has gone !
Excellent
Science
Industrial
Leadership
Societal
Challenges

I - Excellent Science
1. EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL
– € 7.5 billion in FP7 -> € 13 billion in H2020
2. FUTURE AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES the “ICT incubator and pathfinder for new ideas …”
– € 2.7 billion in H2020
3. MARIE CURIE ACTIONS
– € 4.7 billion in FP7 -> € 6 billion in H2020
4. RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES

EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL (ERC)
• Frontier research,
• Cross disciplinary proposals and pioneering ideas in new and emerging fields, which introduce unconventional and innovative approaches
• Across all fields of research
ERC principles:
1 researcher; 1 host institution;
1 project; 1 selection criterion: scientific excellence
No consortia, no networks, no co-financing

EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL (ERC)
The core funding schemes
Starting Grants to support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish a proper research team and to start conducting independent research in Europe.
Consolidator Grants to support researchers at the stage at which they are consolidating their own independent research team or programme.
Advanced Grants to allow exceptional established research leaders of any nationality and any age to pursue ground-breaking, high-risk projects that open new directions in their respective research fields or other domains.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA)
Three main types of MSCAs:
Research networks (ITN): support for Innovative Training
Networks
Individual fellowships (IF): support for experienced researchers undertaking mobility between countries, optionally to the non-academic sector
International and inter-sectoral cooperation through the
Research and Innovation Staff Exchanges (RISE)

II - Industrial Leadership
1. LEADERSHIP IN ENABLING AND INDUSTRIAL
TECHNOLOGIES – LEIT
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
• Nanotechnologies
• Advanced materials
• Biotechnology
Combined in one Workprogramme
• Advanced Manufacturing &Processing
• Space
2. ACCESS TO RISK FINANCE
3. INNOVATION IN SMES

III - Societal Challenges
1. Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing
2. Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy
3. Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy
4. Smart, Green and Integrated Transport
5. Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials
6. Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societies
7. Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.

Major changes ?
So the first conclusion is that everything is there again in H2020 !
Naturally, topic areas change as well as the overall focus.
The budget foreseen for the 6 Enabling
Technologies corresponds the amount in FP7 for those Thematic Areas.
For the Marie Curie actions the budget is a bit higher than in the old “People Programme”.

Major changes ?
The proposed budget for the 6 Societal
Challenges, however, has nearly doubled !
A similar budget increase is proposed for the
European Research Council – the old “Ideas
Programme”.
Apart from that everything seems to be pretty similar to FP7, but …

FP7 was called the
Framework Programme for Research and
Development
H2020 is called the
Framework Programme for Research and Innovation

What is Innovation ?
• Innovation is the process and outcome of creating something new, which is also of value.
• Innovation involves the whole process from opportunity identification, research or invention to development, prototyping, production marketing and sales, while entrepreneurship only needs to involve commercialization
(Schumpeter)

What is Innovation ?
• Innovation = Invention (research) + exploitation
• A new way of doing things, which is commercialized. The process of innovation cannot be separated from a company’s strategic and competitive context (Porter)
• Adoption of ideas that are new to the adopting organization

What is Innovation ?
• Traditionally the focus has been on new products or processes, but recently new
business models have come into focus, i.e. the way a company delivers value and secures profits.

The Innovation Chain
Covered by H2020
Research & development
Prototyping,
Product/process products
Market development
Market replication

Innovation and the Private Sector
To ensure that innovation is happening in H2020
SME participation becomes obligatory in most projects. Around 20% of the total budget for
Societal Challenges and LEITs must go to
SMEs.
There are also specific measures only for
SMEs
This is good news for SMEs, of course !
It is also an important message for universities: purely academic consortia are out !

Rules of Participation
Minimum conditions
• For standard collaborative actions (RIA, IA)
At least, 3 legal entities, each established in different MS/AC
• For SME Instrument, programme co-fund, CSA
1 legal entity established in a MS/AC
Additional conditions
• To be set out in the Work Programme (i.e. number of participants, type of participants, etc.)

Simplified Funding Model
One reimbursement rate by action
The same rate for all beneficiaries and all activities:
– Up to 100% for Research and Innovation actions
– Up to 70% for innovation (non-profit entities up to 100%)
One method for calculation of indirect costs:
– Flat rate of 25% of total direct costs, excluding subcontracting, costs of third parties and financial support to third parties

Eligible costs
Main cost categories:
• Personnel costs
• Costs of subcontracting
• Other direct costs
– Travel costs and subsistence allowances
– Depreciation costs of equipment
– Costs of other goods and services (including non-deductible VAT) NEW
Rules to allow costs for large infrastructure are under discussion

Personnel costs
• Salaries + social security charges + other costs included in the remuneration arising from national law/employment contract
• Additional remuneration up to 8000 EUR (per year) for non-profit legal entities
• Actual worked hours
– Based on time recording system except for staff working full time on an EU action
• Unit costs for
– average personnel costs
– SME owner and natural person with no salary

Simplification: Summary
• Single set of simpler and more coherent participation rules
• New balance between trust and control
• Moving from several funding rates for different beneficiaries and activities to just two
• Replacing the four methods to calculate overhead or
«indirect costs» with a single flat rate
• Major simplification under the forthcoming financial regulation
• Successful applicants to get working more quickly: timeto-grant of 8 months; exceptions for the ERC and in duly justified cases

It is important to be clear about that
• It is not easy to get an H2020 project
• The competition will remain high (15% success rate)
• It requires a substantial amount of work
• You need to team up with a European consortium

Do you have the right motivation to try and get in ?
• Is it for widening your research perspectives or those of your department/institute ?
• Do you have the backing of the management/dean of your organization ?
• Are you prepared to accept dependencies on other partners in the research work to be done ?
• Are you aware of the administrative, management and reporting overheads ?
• Is the money the main reason ?

Some conditions you should be aware of:
• Do you have a good research track record to convince potential partners (academia)?
• Do you have an up-to-date development or production
environment (SME)
• Does a research team exist at your university, or are you an individual researcher ?
• Does your institute/company have a medium to long- term research/development perspectives?

• The ultimate aim is to convince the evaluators that your proposal is the best !
But before you come to that step
• You have to win your place in a consortium !
Take the answers of the previous questions and create a convincing profile of yourself and your organisation/research group

My previous comments may sound rather restrictive, but my advice is:
Try everything to get into collaborative projects
• It will boost your scientific experience
• The cross-cultural experience is invaluable
• … and last but not least: it is real fun !