Horizon 2020: Parliament got everything on its wish-list, except for the money

“The negotiations were very long”, said Maria da Graça Carvalho MEP, Rapporteur for Horizon 2020, reflecting on the eleventh hour agreement on Horizon 2020, the European Union’s next big R&D programme, due to run from 2014 - 2020. “There was a lack of communication at first, which meant that the Council did not fully understand the benefits of our proposals. They realised in the end that our proposal was very good for science and research,” she told Science|Business.

While a €70 billion budget for Horizon 2020 appears to be a significant increase from the €55 billion budget for the current Seventh Framework Programme, it includes the budget for the European Institute of Technology and part of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme. “Put inflation on top of that, and research and innovation has been the victim [of cuts to the overall budget]”, said Christian Ehler MEP.

Fast track to innovation

While the €70 billion final ticket is a long way short of the demands from some MEPs for €100 billion, there was consolation that some of Parliament’s proposals squeezed into the programme. The Fast-track to Innovation scheme, introduced to the Horizon 2020 package by Ehler is a case in point. The scheme, a response to “pleas from industry and research communities,” will establish a permanently open call for proposals. “This will suit small consortiums with innovative projects and uncomplicated budgets,” said Ehler. Proposals may relate to any technology field under the industrial leadership and social challenges streams of Horizon 2020.

Ehler believes this instrument may help break the policy inertia in Brussels. As an example of this, Ehler pointed out that although national heads of government decided that the EU should pursue the green car initiative in 2008, it took the Commission two years to set up calls. Under the Fast Track scheme, industry and academe need no longer wait for the Commission to open a call, but instead can suggest an idea.

The hope is that this bottom-up approach, combined with a reduced time-to-grant of six months, will increase industry participation in Horizon 2020.

Time to grant

The Parliament also succeeded in getting the general time–to-grant cut to eight months. “Throughout the Seventh Framework Programme, the average time taken was a year,” said Ehler. “If we want to compete with China and elsewhere, we need to be faster. The worldwide benchmark for time-to-grant in similar programmes is much less than a year.”

The European Research Council and other programmes will be given the flexibility to exceed time limits where participants request more time for negotiations. Overall, the “Rules are much simpler and faster than under Framework Programme 7,” said Carvalho.

Supporting SMEs

Ehler is also pleased that the Parliament’s argument for more help for SMEs has translated through to the final agreement. Previous research programmes were not designed to suit SMEs. “Until now the EU has made artificial attempts to include SMEs in programmes through quotas,” Ehler said, but in reality the likelihood of SMEs getting any money has been low, with the cost and time involved in submitting an application eating into their resources.

Agreeing a dedicated SME instrument, “was one of the Parliament’s biggest achievements in the negotiations”, said Ehler. The dedicated budget should ensure there a twenty per cent participation of SMEs in the programme, without having SME quotas in calls.

Innovation will also be supported through the inclusion of innovation vouchers for young scientists, noted Carvalho. “SMEs will be able to use these vouchers to work individually with one or more researchers,” she said.

Reaching more regions

In addition, it is hoped that Horizon 2020 can also reach more regions than before. A separate budget line will include programmes such as twinning and teaming of research institutions. “All of my points are included in the package,” said Carvalho. This include grants for excellent researchers working outside of Europe who want to return, or those working within the EU who want to move to less-developed regions. But in terms of hard cash, Parliament’s sole achievement is linking Horizon 2020 to the cohesion policy. A clear-cut definition linking Horizon 2020 with smart specialisation strategies and investments under the structural funds was endorsed. “Certain regional funds will be ear-marked for research and development but it will also be possible to [combine] money from both sources. That could have a leveraging effect on the Horizon 2020 budget,” Ehler said.