El Horizon 2020 Program (H2020) is the program that finances research and innovation projects in the European Union for the period 2014-2020. Coinciding with the completion of the H2020 Program and with the same objective with which it was launched –promote industrial leadership in Europe and reinforce scientific excellence– the European Commission is now immersed in the preparation of its successor, Horizon Europe. This new program will cover the period 2021-2027 and promises to be the largest funding program for research, development and innovation to date.
What is Horizon Europe?
Horizon Europe is a funding program aimed at support research, development and innovation projects that promote a series of objectives common to the entire European Union. These objectives are based on the three pillars of the Horizon Europe program, which are the following:
- scientific excellence: On the one hand, the program seeks to promote “open science” by offering support to researchers through scholarships, and financing projects defined and promoted by the researchers themselves through the European Research Council and the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie actions ( MSCA).
- Global challenges European industrial competitiveness: On the other hand, the program seeks to promote, through the Joint Research Center (JRC), those projects that develop technological solutions to challenges in critical areas such as health, climate change, mobility, food and natural resources, energy, civil security, the digital world, industry and space, etc. This means that not only will the excellence of the projects be valued, but the development projects submitted to the calls must have an evident social impact.
- Innovative Europe: Finally, it seeks to promote and support innovation activities involving companies, research and higher education through the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). These innovation activities will be instrumentalized through the so-called “missions”, which are general global challenges (for example: cancer, soil and food health, smart and climate-neutral cities, health of oceans, seas and coastal waters and continental, and adaptation to climate change). In this way, projects that may generally affect any of these areas will be financed.
Press here to access the complete document on the Horizon Europe 2021-2027 Programme.
Authors: Alba Mª López y Marina Martínez
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