This event, which forms part of the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 2 InfoWeek, presented the funding opportunities available under the Work Programme 2018 - 2020 for research and innovation on 'Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy'.

Event summary and presentations

The Societal Challenge 2 Info Day for the 2018 calls took place on 14 November 2017 in Brussels after the launch of the 2018- 2020 Work Programme on 27 October.

In the morning, the plenary was opened by Marc Bellens, Head of Department of the Research Executive Agency, and two Commission directors responsible for Societal Challenge 2, John Bell, from the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) and Nathalie Sauze-Vandevyver, from the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI). The opening speeches underlined the contribution of this new Work Programme to the global research and innovation efforts to solve food security and environmental challenges faced by the planet. For this purpose, they recalled the importance of joining forces for successful programme implementation in order to deliver benefits to society.

The plenary session highlighted the novelties of the 2018- 2020 Work Programme and thematic priorities for the three calls of Societal Challenge 2:

• Insights into the new Work Programme: research priorities and novelties
• Sustainable Food Security and Rural Renaissance calls
• Blue Growth calls

After the policy introduction to the new calls, the plenary focused on the experience from previous calls and specificities of Societal Challenge 2 including key aspects of successful proposal preparation and evaluation.

In the afternoon, dedicated parallel sessions were organised per call with presentations on the topics of the 2018 Work Programme.

• Sustainable Food Security session
• Blue Growth topics session
• Rural Renaissance

Questions and answers rounds gave the opportunity to clarify topics' conditions. A plenary wrap-up session provided to everyone key messages from the parallel sessions to conclude this information day.

Webstreaming

Watch the event live or the recordings afterwards using the following links:

Room DE GASPERI

• 9:00 – Info Day Opening
• 09:30 – Insights into the new Work Programme: research priorities and novelties, and introduction to Sustainable Food Security and Rural Renaissance and Blue Growth calls for proposals
• 10:00-10:30 – Questions and answers session
• 11:00-11:45 - Hands on: Experience from previous calls and Specificities of SC2 11:45-12:30 - Questions and answers session
• 13:30-16:00 - Parallel sessions on Sustainable Food Security
• 16:00: Conclusions from the parallel sessions

Room MANSHOLT

• 13:30-16:00 - Parallel sessions on Rural Renaissance

Room JENKINS

• 14:00-15:30 - Parallel sessions on Blue Growth

Objectives

The objectives of this event were:

• to introduce the new Work Programme 2018 - 2020 highlighting the main priorities and their policy context
• to share practical information on the different steps of programme implementation from proposal submission until grant signature
• to provide background information on the thematic areas and related topics of the 2018 calls

Target audience

This Info Day is organised for potential applicants of the three upcoming calls for proposals published under the Societal Challenge 2 of the Work Programme for 2018 - 2020:

• Sustainable Food Security
• Blue Growth
• Rural Renaissance

Programme

See the final programme for your information.

Practical information

A brokerage event was organised by the BIOHORIZON project on 15 November 2017.