The UK government recently published an updated note on UK participation in the EU research funding programme, Horizon 2020. The update includes details on the current negotiation status on future UK participation as part of Brexit discussions, as well as confirmation of the recently announced extension of the Underwrite Guarantee for UK participants in the event of a ‘no deal’ outcome.

The updated note follows previous updates issued following the EU referendum and outlines the current position in relation to the proposed Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and EU, the UK government’s Underwrite Guarantee (including the newly announced Post-EU Exit Guarantee Extension), and the UK government’s aspirations for UK participation in Horizon 2020’s successor programme, Horizon Europe (2021-2027).

Withdrawal Agreement

The note outlines the position in the draft of the Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and EU that UK participants in on-going EU funded projects will continue to receive an uninterrupted flow of EU funding for the lifetime of the project. Furthermore, it envisages that UK participants will be eligible to bid for Horizon 2020 funding for the duration of the programme, including after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, as both partners and in coordinating consortia. read more

Given the on-going uncertainty and widespread misapprehensions about the eligibility of UK-based applicants to participate in EU research and higher education funding programmes, Universities UK (UUK) have issued a briefing note summarising the current position.

The key message is that, despite the UK’s decision to leave the EU, nothing has changed in terms of the UK’s status in EU programmes including Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+. UK-based applicants are therefore encouraged to continue to work with collaborators across the EU in developing applications for funding under both programmes.

The agreement on Phase One of the negotiations for the UK’s exit from the EU – announced in December 2017 – clarifies that the UK will continue to pay into the EU budget up until the end of the current budget period in 2020 and therefore there will be no change in the UK’s status in relation to these programmes until 2021 at the earliest. read more

The Horizon 2020 Work Programme for 2018-2020, covering the final three years of the EU’s current research & innovation funding programme, was officially announced at the end of October. The Work Programme contains details of all of the proposed calls across all three pillars of Horizon 2020.

The list of calls announced runs in the hundreds and therefore can seem to be overwhelming to navigate. In this post therefore, we wanted to provide a brief overview of the structure of the Work Programme, a selection of some of the calls that may be of particular interest to Salford academics, along with details of where to go to find out more and to search through all of the available opportunities.

Horizon 2020 Structure

The Horizon 2020 programme is structured into three main ‘pillars’ (Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges). Each of these pillars focuses on a different type of research & innovation action: bottom-up, curiosity-driven research (Excellent Science); applied and close-to-market research & innovation actions with an industry focus (Industrial Leadership); challenge-driven collaborative research & innovation actions addressing some of the grand themes affecting both the EU and the wider world (Societal Challenges). Within each pillar there are sub-categories, all of which have their own part of the Work Programme. read more

Our annual EU Research Funding day takes place on Wednesday 1 November 2017. In addition, this year we are coordinating our event with those being held by MMU and University of Manchester on 31 October and 2 November, allowing Salford staff to register for sessions on whichever day is most suitable for them.

The Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation Programme is the EU’s primary research funding mechanism. The programme is hugely popular and many calls are extremely competitive. We have therefore invited our UKRO European Advisor, Ian Devine, to visit the 3 Manchester universities to give an insider’s view on the how give your proposals the best possible chance of success, to coincide with the announcement of the latest Work Programme, covering 2018-2020.

With a budget of nearly €80bn covering the period 2014-2020, Horizon 2020 is the key source of research funding available from the EU and offers opportunities for international research collaboration, European and international fellowships, individual research grants, feasibility studies and research for SMEs, doctoral training and much more. read more

In light of a number of queries received from academic colleagues in recent weeks, it is clear that there is still some uncertainty about the position of UK researchers in relation to applying for EU research funding in light of the referendum result and the UK’s impending departure from the EU. The Research Development Team therefore thought it would be useful to summarise the current position and to point colleagues towards additional sources of information about post-referendum related issues.

The over-arching message is that, at least until the UK officially leaves the EU (currently expected to be in March 2019), there is no change in UK-based applicants’ ability to bid and be awarded funding from the main EU research & innovation funding programmes (Horizon 2020, but also Erasmus+). Those colleagues interested in applying for funding from these sources should continue to pursue these opportunities and work with their partners across Europe to develop and submit their proposals as normal. read more

EU Research Funding: UK Research Office (UKRO) visit day at Salford

Information sessions with Ian Devine, European Adviser at UKRO, and the Research & Enterprise Development Team, University of Salford

Wednesday 15 June 2016

Newton Building, Room 233

The Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation Programme is the EU’s primary research & innovation funding mechanism. The programme is hugely popular and many calls are extremely competitive. We have therefore invited our UKRO European Advisor, Ian Devine, to visit Salford on 15 June to give the view from Brussels on how to develop your proposals in order to have the best possible chance of success.

With a budget of €80bn covering the period 2014-2020, Horizon 2020 is the key source of research funding available from the EU and offers opportunities for international research collaboration, European and international fellowships, individual research grants, feasibility studies and research for SMEs, doctoral training and much more. read more

This article outlines the overall procedure for Horizon 2020 proposals, which will be very similar to its predecessor the Framework Programme 7. However, given the different nature of Horizon 2020, including the more multidisciplinary nature of some projects and the more bottom up formulation of topics, there are a few differences in approach to note.

Horizon 2020, the EU Research and Innovation programme with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) launched its first calls on 11 December, detailing the Work Programmes and topics that will be open for submissions in 2014 and 2015.

The official Horizon 2020 webpages can be accessed here:

http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-horizon-2020

All of the 2014-15 Work Programmes can be accessed here:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/funding/reference_docs.html#h2020-work-programmes-2014-15-main-wp read more

If you are interested in finding out more about the opportunities that the new EU research programme HORIZON2020 has to offer for researchers in social sciences and humanities, there will be several  events taking place in the New Year:

1)  Achieving Impact: Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in Horizon 2020” Athens, 26th and 27th of February 2014

The two-day event will appeal to members of the SSH research community who are looking for networking and funding opportunities within Horizon 2020. It will be of particular interest to researchers from universities and research organisations in the field of SSH, Civil Society Organisations & Non-governmental Organisations. SSH-relevant industries involved in Research and Innovation activities are also among the target audience. Established networks such as ERA-NETs will be invited to attend. read more

Dear ELS Colleagues,

Further to last week’s sessions on the EU HORIZON2020 research programme at the School of Environment and Life Sciences, please find attached:

• The HORIZON 2020 programme  overview slides;
• The relevant Work Programmes, which contain topics that will be called for applications in the 2014 and 2015 Calls for submissions:
  • Societal Challenge 1– Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing
  • Societal Challenge 2 – Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture, Marine and Maritime Research and the Bioeconomy
  • Societal Challenge 5 – Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials
  A summary of the relevant H2020 2014-15 topics for ELS.

  Futhermore, I also wanted to make you aware of an information day organised by Defra, BBSRC, NERC and FSA that is currently open for registration – places are allocated on a first come, first served basis.

  The day is aimed at academic and business organisations interested in exploring funding opportunities in two key areas  – read more