Brussels – The European Commission has confirmed the calls and other actions of the second year of the two-year work programmes setting out funding opportunities for 2017.
The 2016-2017 Work Programme introduces important novelties aiming to support the Commission’s long term goals. Firstly, open publication of research data through the Open Research Data Pilot will now be the default setting, unless a consortium can give justification of why data should not be freely available. This is intended to ensure that publicly-funded research is exploited. Projects within the Pilot will also be required to devise Data Management Plans (DMPs), detailing what data the project will generate, whether and how it will be made accessible for verification and re-use, and how it will be curated and preserved.
New calls in Industry 2020 in the Circular Economy (H2020-IND-CE-2016-17) worth €225 million will contribute to boosting and renewing Europe’s industrial capacities while ensuring sustainability, also through Factories of the Future (FoF) and Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency (SPIRE) PPPs.
In terms of thematic focus, the Work Programme introduces a new ‘Closing the water gap’ topic with a budget of €10 million in the ‘Greening the economy’ call (H2020-SC5-2016-2017) which will reduce fragmentation of water research and innovation efforts across Europe and contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
A €133 million call for Green Vehicles (H2020-GV-2016-2017) includes around €20 million for the development of a new generation of lithium battery cells or post-lithium battery cells and their integration in competitive batteries. The ambition is to allow Europe to recover competitiveness in the production of future cells and batteries for transport and energy applications.
The Energy calls (H2020-LCE-2016-2017) in 2017 dedicate more than €84 million for developing energy storage systems improving the flexibility of the energy grid to integrate an increasing share of renewables. These efforts reinforce the Energy Challenge’s strong support of previous years for energy storage, including batteries, which bring the investment to almost € 200 million (2014-17).
A €280 million sustainable food security (H2020-SFS-2016-2017) call will foster resilient and resource efficient primary production and industry, as well as sustainable and healthy consumption. €4 million will support the policy development and implementation of the European Commission’s FOOD 2030 initiative to connect, structure and scale-up research and innovation for food and nutrition security in Europe, but in a global context.
For more information, see the Horizon 2020 Portal.