The European Commission has launched the public stakeholder consultation for the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. The gathered feedback will feed into the upcoming interim evaluation of Horizon 2020, that aims to improve the functioning of the EUR 77 billion backed funding scheme running from 2014-2020, and will also contribute to shaping plans for Europe’s future research and innovation programme. Public feedback on Horizon 2020 can be provided up to 15 January 2017, and the European commission is stipulated to carry out its interim evaluation by 31 December 2017.

Horizon 2020 is not alone in the group of EU initiatives that are up for public input, in parallel you may currently likewise ‘have your say’ on the Euratom Research and Training Programme also until 15 January 2017, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is running its public consultation until 20 November 2016, and a consultation on public-public and public-private partnerships under Horizon 2020 is to be launched in the near future.

On the cooperation side of Horizon 2020, further progress has been made in a new EU-US agreement that encourages opportunities for the best of talent from both sides of the Atlantic to work closer together in research.  The so called ‘Implementing Arrangement’, concluded by the European Commission and the US Government, sees as a central improvement a simplification of cooperation by equipping researchers with more freedom to organise joint activities outside the formal Horizon 2020 Grant Agreement. Concretely the new agreement facilitates US organisations and entities not funded under Horizon 2020, but by the US, and those selected Horizon 2020 participants, to increase cooperative efforts in research projects.

Two years in the running, Horizon 2020 has so far attracted over 78 000 proposals, brought about 9000 signed grant agreements and allocated nearly EUR 16 million to boosting scientific excellence and leadership, of which nearly half of successful beneficiaries were newcomers to the programme.    

European Commission – Horizon 2020 public consultation, Press release
European Commission – EU-US agreement, Press release