EU launches biggest-ever R&D funding package as €7B goes up for grabs

Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn unveiled the EU’s biggest-ever R&D funding package, with a massive €7 billion of grants about to be made available under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7).

This is expected to be distributed to16,000 recipients, with special attention for SMEs, including a dedicated package of close to €1 billion. There will also be a new EU Prize for women innovators whose work has been funded by FP7 or earlier programmes.

The majority of the calls for proposals will be published tomorrow (20 July).

“Today, Europe is again showing its commitment to putting research and innovation at the top of the political agenda for growth and jobs,” said Geoghegan-Quinn. “EU-wide competition for these funds will bring Europe’s best researchers and innovators together to tackle the biggest issues of our time, such as energy, food security, climate change and our ageing population.”

The Commission is proposing a significant increase in research and innovation funding for the successor programme to FP7, Horizon 2020, which will run from 2014 – 2020. “I want to show taxpayers with the calls we are announcing today our determination to get the best value for every euro,” Geoghegan-Quinn said.

The main focus of the calls is the integration of research and innovation to deal with large-scale problems such as climate change and the ageing population, and creating jobs and growth by giving Europe a lead in the key technology markets of the future.

This will be achieved by providing more support than ever before for activities that help bridge the gap between research and the market, for example to demonstrate that new technologies have commercial potential, or can work on a sufficiently large scale to be industrially viable.

This market-linked approach is also central to the European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs). Each EIP, including the pilot on Active and Healthy Ageing will be supported by FP7 projects.

In all, €220 million of the €656 million available for health research and €240 million of the €1.3 billion in funding for information and communication technology (ICT) will be allocated to work aimed at tackling the challenge of providing for an ageing population.

The rest of the ICT funding will go to developments in network and service infrastructures, in nano-/micro-systems, photonics and robotics, in digital content and language technologies, and for applications such as ICT for health and ICT for energy-efficiency.

The European Research Council (ERC) will award close to €1.6 billion to the best senior and young researchers working in Europe. To help bridge the gap between basic research results and commercialisation, a small scale proof of concept initiative has been introduced. Meanwhile, the new ERC synergy grant will support a few small groups of researchers working together on the same project.

Around €900 million in support for researcher mobility and careers will be provided through Marie Curie actions for around 10,000 researchers.  This will include €20 million for a pilot project to fund European Industrial Doctorates that aim to stimulate entrepreneurship and cooperation between universities, research institutions and companies.

The €265 million for environmental research will be channelled to problems including climate change, biodiversity loss and resource efficiency. 

In response to the increasing demand for safer, healthier food and sustainable bio-resources, the European Commission will invest over €307 million in building a strong bio-economy to improve production methods, create new industries and provide jobs.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) will be given special incentives to participate. In addition to newly simplified rules, the investment package of almost €1 billion for SMEs includes pilot schemes within health research and through the European Investment Bank’s Risk-Sharing Finance Facility for SMEs.

The €488 million to be devoted to nanotechnologies will focus on areas including factories of the future, green cars and energy efficient buildings.

Meanwhile, research directed at cleaner, safer and more efficient transport and mobility will get €313 million. At the same time €40 million will go into the Smart Cities initiative, to help find more efficient ways to use energy and provide urban transport.

Although the European Commission’s research budget amounts to only 5 per cent of Europe’s total public spending on research, FP7 is the largest single programme in the world with a budget of more than €53 billion for 2007-2013.