Horizon 2020 and SMEs

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly EUR 80 billion of EU funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020), in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries, and ‘world-firsts’ by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

What the Commission does

The Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs aims to ensure that Horizon 2020 prioritises activities that target industrial and commercial success, both in the drafting of the work programme and in the selection of projects and in particular for close-to-market projects.

The Directorate-General:

implements the parts of H2020 related to space research, raw materials, and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
is closely associated with the implementation of the part of Horizon 2020 dedicated to Key Enabling Technologies (EUR 5.9 billion from 2014 to 2020), a priority of the EU’s industrial policy
contributes to the implementation of public-private partnerships under Horizon 2020 in the five other priorities areas of the EU’s industrial policy:
- Advanced manufacturing
- Green vehicles
- Sustainable construction
- Bio-economy and bio-based products
- Smart grids
aims to ensure that SME participation to Horizon 2020 is high (EUR 8.6 billion foreseen), in particular with the new ‘SME Instrument’ (almost EUR 3 billion), and that the SME Instrument is fully used to boost innovation capacity

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