Horizon2020: Get into Fast-Track

At the dawn of the month of May the architecture of Horizon2020 becomes visible. With declining national budgets, and also regional budgets for innovation being under pressure, Horizon2020 is the biggest single source for funding for research and innovation in Europe.  The budget of Horizon2020 is still being negotiated between the member states and the European Commission, but it is unlikely to increase substantially compared to FP7. This is unfortunate.

It is unfortunate, since the predominance of (even declining) national funding for R&D does not allow for an optimal allocation of resources. Combined with a lack of reform of the university system, fragmentation of research prevails and lack of responsiveness to industry needs remains an issue in many Member States. Moreover with a fragmenting economy, even for niche industries critical mass and focus is only obtained at a European level. It is also unfortunate since the EU proposes to fund proposals up to 100% (with simplified cost models). This means that for the same budget less projects will be funded.

The European Commission deserves credit for fostering critical mass and focus in Horizon2020. The importance of societal challenges gives that focus, and even better creates (potentially)  a market pull to innovation, instead of the classic technology push model prevalent in smart specialization strategies. Also the Flagships, in excellent science, and the key enabling technologies contribute to a focus on supporting the societal challenges. This means that any company or industry should analyse to which extend its own technology road-map fits into Horizon2020. To be clear: this is an urgent task to perform.

The devil is however in the details. In order to prepare for Horizon2020 the European Commission has set up several consultation models. Some societal challenges have been prepared in Working Groups (e.g. on electric cars), in others the hand of key industrial players is visible (a well known Aerospace company). Often the European Commission has implemented European Innovation Partnerships (e.g. on water and on Raw Materials) or has set up High Level Groups (e.g. on the Key Enabling Technologies). The design of these advisory groups is a careful matter, with a cross section from member states, industry and public research.

It can be expected that the fine tuning of priorities of work programs is done in these structures, and it is also likely that competent, qualified and well-positioned, consortia will emerge from their sessions. Just to remind you, the Work Programs under Horizon 2020 shall last two years (just as the ICT WP under FP7). Horizon2020, because of its limited size, focus on key challenges and methods to prepare work programs shall be much less bottom up than FP7 and certainly than FP6. The part of the budget for bottom up ideas for research and innovation shall be much smaller. Moreover a larger part of budget shall be allocated to private-public partnerships.

The dice is now rolling and for both research and innovation oriented companies and for research groups, the clock is ticking. According to me, in the coming six months any researcher and innovation oriented organization or company should do the following things:

• Make or update a technology road map or research agenda and examine the convergence with Horizon2020. Define a project portfolio.

• Identify key lines of influence for the 2014-2015 work programmes, through high level groups, European innovation partnerships etc…. Set up a position paper.

• Identify key players and consortia to join for essential technology projects. Set up a good stakeholder analysis with contact matrix.