Will unsuccessful Horizon 2020 applicants get a second chance?

Research proposals rejected by the European Commission, but deemed high quality, may get a second chance, EU Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas said this week.

One option under consideration is to direct applicants who are unsuccessful in getting grants from the €80 billion Horizon 2020 programme to the €100 billion-plus innovation-focussed element of the EU’s development programme.

With success rates for Horizon 2020 hovering as low as 14 and 15 per cent, referring applicants who receive positive marks from evaluators to the regional fund is seen by the Commission as one possible way out.

“We cannot oblige countries to automatically fund these projects,” Carlos Moedas, Research Commissioner said in an interview with Science|Business. “We have to give them the right incentive to do it.”

“I think the incentive here is to say, ‘Look, we have these projects that went through the Horizon 2020 evaluation filter, which is extremely tough, and here you go, you have a [recognition] of excellence, it’s up to you [whether to provide finance].”

This will be a way of ensuring good ideas are not buried, said Moedas and fits with the guiding principle of his office to, “get the most out of EU research.”

Reforms for regional policy introduced last year mean such an arrangement is within the realm of possibility. Billions in EU regional development funds, once sprinkled widely to help less-developed regions catch up, will now be more targeted to support innovation in those regions, through a policy of smart specialisation.

The concept challenges member states to make a break with typical regional infrastructure projects, such as building new roads and bridges, and instead put money directly into sectors with high growth potential.

For this to work in practice, broad support is needed from all quarters, said Moedas. Agreements must be made between local and regional governments, which draw up strategies for how to spend the money, and the Commission’s regional policy directorate-general, which oversees how the funding is distributed.

The Commission has made previous attempts to steer grant applications, which although highly rated do not get funded because EU money runs out, towards member states.

The European Research Council, which at its 2007 launch had success rates of 3 per cent, persuaded some member states to fund grant applicants it would have been happy to fund if there had been more money.