Societal Challenges

The European Commission has announced the 12 members of the new High Level Group that will formulate a vision for future EU research and innovation and make recommendations on maximising the impact of EU investments in this area. The group is chaired by Pascal Lamy, President Emeritus of the Jacques Delors Institute.

In 2015 there was an increase in proposals by 25% compared to 2014, especially coming from businesses, whose number of applications increased by almost 27%.

Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme, is attracting more and more researchers and innovators. In 2015 there was an increase in proposals by 25% compared to 2014, especially coming from businesses, whose number of applications increased by almost 27%. Almost 50 % of participants are newcomers, many of which are small and medium-sized companies.

The High Level Group of the Commission's new Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) has published its first opinion. It focuses on enhancing the measurement of CO2 emissions from cars.

The European Commission is today presenting new measures that will help bring more countries to the map of research excellence. The actions range from financing new knowledge centres to facilitating structural reforms that will enable more synergies between different funding sources. They will be rolled out during the last three years of Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation funding programme that runs until 2020.

The European Semester, the Commission's yearly cycle of economic policy coordination, supports Member States' structural reforms in different policy areas to promote jobs, growth and investment.

The European Commission has today launched a public stakeholder consultation which will feed into the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020, the EU's €77 billion research and innovation funding scheme running from 2014 to 2020. This interim evaluation will help improve the functioning of Horizon 2020, and will also be an important element in preparations of a next EU research and innovation programme.

European and American researchers will be able to work together more closely on projects funded under Horizon 2020, the European Union's research and innovation programme. This is thanks to an agreement concluded today between the European Commission and the US Government.

The European Union and South Africa are strengthening their scientific collaboration in order to better understand and protect marine ecosystems and the link between oceans and climate.

Could you help strengthen Europe's capacity to generate and scale up breakthrough innovations? The European Commission is inviting Europe's top innovators to join a High Level Group that will advise on the design of a potential European Innovation Council (EIC).

ICT Proposers' day 2106 is a networking event promoting European ICT Research & Innovation and focusing on the Horizon 2020 Work Programme for 2016-17. Registration is now open for this event.

This brochure shows an assessment of Horizon 2020 management and distribution throughout 2014-2015, with information including number of proposals and accepted applications, time-to-grant, key Horizon 2020 performance indicators, and more.

The European Commission will set up a High Level Group of experts who will advise on how to maximise the impact of the EU's investment into research and innovation. The Group will be chaired by Pascal Lamy, President Emeritus of the Jacques Delors Institute, the Commission decided on 21 September 2016.

The European Investment Bank today announced a €20 million loan agreement with German-based Heliatek, a world leader in the production of organic photovoltaic devices and solar films.

The European Commission presented today key policy recommendations that will help enhance the performance of Hungary in research and innovation. These recommendations were requested by Hungary under the Policy Support Facility (PSF), a new instrument under Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation programme.

By redesigning the car interior and harnessing the latest electronic technologies, EU-funded scientists are designing and developing an affordable and user-friendly electric vehicle specifically for Europe's ageing population. A prototype should be ready in 2018.

As part of its update of EU copyright rules, the European Commission today proposed a copyright exception that would permit researchers to analyse on a large scale scientific data to which they have lawful access.

The European Union (EU) Contest for Young Scientists, an initiative of the European Commission, was set up to promote the ideals of co-operation and interchange between young scientists.

ICT-enabled public sector modernisation is one of the key priorities of Societal Challenge 6, part of the H2020 research programme. Public administrations should move towards an open government paradigm, composed of 3 axes: «Open data», «Open services» and «Open process». This brochure presents these themes and the projects focusing their activities in "Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societes".

Today, the European Commission announced an investment of €8.5 billion to be released during 2017 into research and innovation, following an update to the Work Programme of Horizon 2020, the EU's research and innovation funding programme.