2021 is quite far yet! But I do believe that due to the current circumstances, we all want to fast-forward our lives and jump in 2021 wishing that we will return to our normal rhythms and openly again meet our friends, family members, colleagues and people in general without masks and social distances.
¨Open¨ is an important word, not only for our lives but also the European Commission’s objectives and its next R&I Programme – Horizon Europe (2021 – 2027). Did you see the following visual? Quite a few times, “open” is spotted.
Let’s find out together the reasons behind.
In this blog post, we will try to highlight the key points that are crucial to consider in preparation for Horizon Europe.
- Did you know that Horizon Europe is the largest envelope ever invested by the EU dedicated to research and innovation? The planned launch date for Horizon Europe is January 2021, the overall planned budget is around 100 billion EUR.
- Innovation becomes a crucial aspect and one of three pillars of the Horizon Europe:
Pillar I - Excellent Science
Pillar II - Global Challenges and Industrial Competitiveness and
Pillar III – Innovative Europe
All three pillars together will address fundamental science, global challenges and open innovation. To achieve those objectives, researchers should become innovators. Meaning that fast, flexible financial grants and market-based instruments will be provided to innovators (from individuals to universities, research organisations and companies) as well as training, coaching and mentorship.
- Openness in research in Horizon Europe is highly encouraged and new tools will be set up such as a European Open Science Cloud. It will facilitate the processing of huge scientific data and sharing of scientific results for better access to knowledge and innovation.
- Openness is also recommended in collaboration through the establishment of synergies with other EU and international programmes to tackle global challenges.
Activities aiming at Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation become important. In practice, if you aim to team up, build and knowledge transfer to countries that rank lower in terms of R&I performance will be considered a positive step towards excellence and contribution to science.
Also, keep in mind!
- Horizon Europe will request for more impact. In practice, beneficiaries should be ready to enhance their dissemination and exploitation activities. In summary, always remember that your proposal has to prove that it will have a huge impact that meaningfully supports the challenges and political priorities of the Union.
- The research will be mission oriented. Specific missions will be defined, and researchers will have the possibility to choose the ways and types of actions themselves to deliver the expected impact.
Next year seems to be more exciting right? New programmes, new goals, new challenges!
Do you want to get a more detailed overview of the upcoming changes referring to Horizon Europe?
Have a look at the new poster, we prepared together with EMDESK which can be used as a compass towards the new structural changes in Horizon Europe.
Download the EMDESK/EM poster from here.
