€783 million to be awarded to ‘Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation’ actions.
On 3rd July 2014 an Info Day will take place in Brussels on ‘Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation’, a new EU research funding action within Horizon 2020. The main aim is to reduce the disparities across Europe in research and innovation performance. Coordinators of the projects to be funded should be located in the 13 'new' EU member states plus Portugal, Luxembourg, and some associated countries.
Despite serious efforts made at national and European level, the EU still faces significant internal disparities in research and innovation (R&I) performance. Horizon 2020, the EU's new €80bn R&I framework programme for the period 2014-2020, addresses these challenges by introducing specific funding for 'Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation' actions. The aim is to tap into Europe's as yet unexploited R&I potential through a stronger commitment of the lower-performing European countries and regions.
Potential applicants are welcome at an all-day Brussels event on Wednesday 3 July 2014 which will explain and discuss details of the funding scheme. Those wishing to attend must confirm their presence by 25 June (reply to RTD-INFO-DAYS-B5@ec.europa.eu).
'This information day will be an ideal opportunity for prospective applicants to clarify pending issues and to discuss them directly with us', says Dimitri Corpakis, Head of Unit ‘Spreading of Excellence and Widening Participation’ in DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission.
The calls for proposals under the new initiative include:
Teaming - setting up new centres of excellence by pairing them up with leading institutions;
Twinning - boosting a specific field of research in an emerging institution by linking it with at least two world leaders in the field;
ERA Chairs - attracting outstanding academics to emerging research organisations.
Organisations from the EU13 (which joined after 2004), as well as from Luxembourg and Portugal will be eligible to apply as coordinators (host of the funded projects) for the Teaming, Twinning and ERA Chairs calls. In addition, applicants from the following countries will be eligible (subject to the future agreements associating these countries to Horizon 2020): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldavia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
The Teaming, Twinning and ERA Chairs projects selected for funding will be managed by the Research Executive Agency (REA), as part of the Agency's new mandate under Horizon 2020.