Teaming up: 31 projects receive €14.5M in EU research-buddy scheme

04 Feb 2015 | News
Europe’s leading scientific institutions will work with less-developed regions to start-up new research centres

The 31 winners of a competition designed to boost research institutes in Europe's lagging regions by pairing them with prestigious institutes have been announced.

Each will receive €500,000 to develop business plans for launching new labs or revamping existing ones. The teaming programme will see established and respected institutes, mostly in Northern and Western Europe, providing advice and support to institutes in Southern and Eastern Europe, with lower scientific output s.

The teaming projects, to be hosted in fourteen European countries, include the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia teaming up with the Karolinska Institute, Sweden’s largest medical university; a Bulgarian institute partnering with Germany’s Max Planck Institute to establish a lab for sustainable bio-based technologies; and the University of Cyprus collaborating with Imperial College London to create a new centre focussed on information technology.

Following the first stage of the scheme, a further €87 million will be available from the Horizon 2020 R&D programme for up to ten successful business plans chosen by EU evaluators.  

“We are determined to see that no part of Europe is left behind in research and innovation,” said Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas. “Teaming now helps to achieve this by creating partnerships between those at the top and those with the most potential.”

Regions that are home to institutes that get funding for successful business plans will be expected to provide long-term backing, using either local money or other EU funds. The partnering institutions will provide management and networking expertise.

Strong interest

The Commission received 169 business plans for the scheme, which exceeded expectations.

The most applications came from Romania which submitted 24 proposals, followed by Poland with 19, and associated member state Serbia with 15. Germany provided the most candidate partner institutions, 136, followed by the UK, which appears in 67 applications.

The European Commission will open another Teaming call in 2018.

Press release here
List of partnerships here

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