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6.
ERC&Horizon2020
The European Union and many of its Member States, including Greece, are confronting one of the most se-
vere economic and financial crises in their recent history. In this context the
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was approved earlier in 2010. The Europe 2020 Agenda for delivering smart, sustainable and
socially-inclusive growth wants to strengthen the “knowledge triangle” formed by the policies for research, edu-
cation and innovation in such a way as to place knowledge at the service of economic, social and environmental
progress. In this sense, the
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- a flagship initiative within the Europe 2020 Strategy - has been
established to strengthen every link in the Innovation Chain, from the frontier or blue sky research to the success-
ful transfer of such research into commercial products and services.
Despite many achievements and a high level of performance in a large number of fields, Europe is not mak-
ing the most of its research potential and resources. Europe’s performance in excellent frontier research lags
well behind the USA and faces increasing competition from fast-developing Asian countries. The innovation
performance of the European economy has also declined in recent years. Indeed, there is an urgent need for
improvement as shown by indicators relating to the numbers of technologically-based start-ups, the propensity
of established firms to innovate, and the emergence of new sectors arising from the development of new tech-
nologies. Therefore, Europe urgently needs to strengthen its capacity to generate knowledge and translate such
knowledge into greater economic competitiveness and well-being.
In order to redress such a situation, the European Commission has proposed a substantial change in EU re-
search and innovation funding, bringing together current research and innovation programmes (i.e FP7, the
Competitiveness and Innovation Programme, and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology) into a
single strategic framework to fund the whole innovation cycle.
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– the new funding programme
for research and innovation – was announced by the EC on
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and needs to be adopted
by the European Parliament and Council before the end of 2013. It will run from 2014 to 2020 with a proposed
total budget of 80 billion
€
. Horizon 2020 aims to make participation easier, to increase scientific and economic
impact and to provide better value for money. It will seek the right balance between fundamental and applied re-
search and between a top-down approach, where goals are fixed in advance, and a bottom-up approach, where
research themes are not pre-determined.
Horizon 2020 is structured around three distinct but mutually reinforcing pillars, in line with Europe 2020 priori-
ties and in support of the Innovation Union’s commitments that include a greater focus on societal challenges,
a strengthened approach to SMEs and stronger support for the market uptake of innovation through procure-
ments, standards-setting as well as loan and equity financing.
The first Pillar, “Excellent Science” will support the EU’s position as a world leader in science with a dedi-
•
cated budget of
€
24,6 billion and includes the European Research Council (ERC), together with Marie
Curie Actions, Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) and Research Infrastructures.
The second pillar, “Industrial Leadership” will be dedicated to supporting industrial participation in research
•
through major investment in key technologies, and greater access to capital and support for SMEs.
The third pillar, “Societal Challenges” will respond directly to challenges identified in Europe 2020 by pro-
•
viding funds to address major concerns shared by all Europeans. The focus will be on collaborative and
multidisciplinary research projects of significant scope.
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EKT as the Greek NCP for the ERC