Brussels – Greenovate! Europe have issued a position paper on ‘Improving Impact in Horizon 2020’, in response to the European Commission’s consultation for the programme’s interim evaluation.
Horizon 2020 is the largest ever EU research and innovation framework programme, and aims to promote Europe’s scientific and technological excellence to extend the frontiers of human knowledge, boost the EU’s economic competitiveness and addresses societal challenges.
The programme has given greater prominence to the impact of research funding than previous framework programmes, but improvements remain possible for increasing exploitation of publicly funded research results. It is only if exploitation is fully supported that the aims of the programme can be achieved.
Through our experience in Horizon 2020 projects, G!E recommends that the Commission:
- Better define Innovation Actions with industry and society, targeting higher TRL technologies to produce directly exploitable results;
- Make call topics for Research & Innovation Actions broader to encourage bottom-up, innovative applications;
- Deliver more detailed evaluation reports, to help consortiums to understand the weaknesses of their proposals and prepare for re-submission;
- Support the involvement of dedicated exploitation experts in projects, and insist on robust exploitation activities;
- Provide 100% funding for Management, Exploitation, Communication and Dissemination activities – activities that do not create value for those who perform them;
- Revert to actual cost overheads for research centres rather than a flat rate;
- Give greater guidance and training to SME Instrument evaluators, to ensure that evaluations are consistent;
- Reinstate a fully-fledged Eco-innovation Programme to support new environmental products and services.
The results of the consultation will not only feed into the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020, but will also contribute to discussions on the follow-up programme. Proposals for ‘FP9’ are expected in early 2018, following the publication of a foresight study in mid-2017 and the completed interim evaluation, which must be published by the end of the year.
The Commission plans to hold separate consultations on the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), and public-private partnerships such as SPIRE and Factories of the Future.
Click here to read the full Position Paper on the Horizon 2020 Interim Review: Improving Impact in Horizon 2020.