HORIZON BLOG: European R&D policy newsbytes (archived)

Brussels has ratified Tunisia's Horizon Europe association, bringing the North African country closer to full participation after the sign off was delayed amid concerns over a drift away from democracy. 

On 29 March the Commission confirmed that Tunisia and the EU had signed the association agreement. The only hurdles left are ratification by the Tunisian side, and an exchange of diplomatic notes. 

"I welcome Tunisia to our Horizon Europe programme," said research commissioner Mariya Gabriel. 

Tunisia had been one of the very last countries to have negotiated a Horizon deal, but not completed it. Some MEPs have voiced concerns about allowing the country to join after an apparent coup last summer. 

The 24 start-ups selected for funding by the EU innovation fund, the European Innovation Council (EIC), last year will receive alternative funding from the Swiss government.  

Despite winning the competition, the companies are no longer entitled to EU funding after Switzerland’s participation in the Horizon Europe research programme was taken hostage by wider political disagreements. The start-ups will receive grant funding from the government to replace the grant and equity funding they were set to receive from EU funds.  

No more companies are allowed to participate in EIC competitions but earlier this month Switzerland announced it is setting up its own fund to replace the EU programme. The first calls of the Swiss Accelerator are expected to open on 1 April.  

The Commission for Pandemic Research had been set up to run for two years but will now continue its work until the end of 2023, with a new focus on long-term challenges, as the COVID-19 pandemic persists.  

In 18 sessions over the last two years, the group surveyed the international pandemic research landscape, identified research gaps and supported evidence-based research, including through a dedicated funding programme which emerged from its work. Now, it will shift focus to longer-term effects of the pandemic and pandemic preparedness. 

“After all, the pandemic has far-reaching implications beyond the immediate consequences for health – areas in which research will be required for a long time to come,” said Katja Becker, president of the German Research Foundation (DFG). 

The European Research Council’s (ERC) Consolidator grants call this year closed with 2,222 proposals for fundamental research projects from mid-career researchers, recording a 16.2% decrease in applications compared with last year.  

The researchers are competing for 388 grants to be financed by this year’s €776 million Consolidator grant fund. This means around 17% of applicants will likely receive funding, marking a higher than usual success rate for ERC grants. 

Of the 2,222 proposals, 937 were in physical sciences and engineering, 676 in social sciences and humanities and 609 in life sciences. A little more than a third were submitted by women.  

Civil society and industry representatives are invited to join two new expert groups that will be part of the advisory forum of the new European Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA).  

The two new expert groups, the Civil Society Forum and the Joint Industrial Cooperation Forum, are expected to provide scientific and technical advice. 

HERA, modelled on the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, is the EU’s new health body which will coordinate EU-wide clinical trial networks during health emergencies. It was conceived following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and is set to launch this year with a dedicated budget of €6 billion up to 2027. Of this, €1.7 billion represents Horizon Europe’s contribution to research into health emergencies, which has raised concerns from the European Parliament that the European Commission is taking money from the EU’s limited research fund without consulting the policymakers.  

The European Investment Bank’s fundf the maritime economy is getting a four year extension and an additional €500 million. 

The Blue Invest Fund will now run until 2026 and mobilise a total of €1.5 billion to fund investment banks, mutual and pension funds that are investing in innovative blue economy start-ups and SMEs. 

“The first phase of the platform acted as an accelerator to foster innovation and investment in sustainable technologies for the blue economy. To deepen and scale up these activities, we are now launching the second stage of BlueInvest,” said Virginijus Sinkevičius, commissioner for environment, oceans and fisheries.  

The National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) has announced Puerta Horizonte Europa, a new scheme which will provide funding to Mexican researchers and institutes in successful Horizon Europe projects.

The government wants to encourage Mexican institutions to apply in Horizon Europe calls and to strengthen bilateral relations between the EU and Mexico in science, technology and innovation.

The mechanism is expected to be published by Mexico on 25 April. Public and private Mexican institutions can apply in Horizon Europe calls.

More details can be found here.

The European Commission has launched its 2022 competition for innovation procurement. Innovators can submit applications until 22 June.

The award is backed by the European Innovation Council (EIC), the Commission’s own scale-up fund and has been designed to recognise public and private buyers, natural persons and legal entities in their efforts to promote and stimulate innovation procurement.

The contest will award six prizes in total for the three categories: innovation procurement strategy, facing societal challenges, and procurement leadership.

In each category the winner will be rewarded with €75 000 and one runner-up with €25 000.

Award criteria for winners and runners up can be found on the awards page.

The first Horizon Europe call under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) research fellowship programme sees €242 million in grants going to 1,156 post-doctoral researchers. 

The grantees will have the chance to carry out their own research projects at universities, research centres and private companies, while developing skills through training as well as international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral exchanges. 

A total of 1,025 researchers will carry out their work in Horizon Europe countries, while 131 will go to other countries, such as US, China, Canada and Australia. There’s also an extra 50 fellowships awarded to researchers from Widening countries from which participation in Horizon Europe tends to be lower. Researchers in Portugal, Czech Republic, Greece, Slovenia and Poland secured the largest numbers of the Widening grants. 

As Europe looks to reduce its dependency on Russian energy, a German-led initiative has identified the most pressing research and innovation challenges to setting up a European green hydrogen economy. 

The strategic agenda lists the challenges and priorities for areas such as production, transport and infrastructure, and market stimulation. It also calls for a joint platform where member states and the European Commission could coordinate initiatives.  

The plan is a pilot initiative of the new European Research Area, announced back in 2020 during the German presidency of the EU Council of member states. It will feed into a conference on green hydrogen in May. “The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda is to serve as a nucleus on the way towards a European Hydrogen Union,” said Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Germany’s research minister.  

Europe has been touting green hydrogen as a key ingredient of its decarbonisation strategy in sectors such as heavy duty transport, aviation, and steelmaking.