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The European Commission has the mandate of implementing programs that no single country in Europe could ever do by themselves, and also has the luxury of being able to deliver programs and budgets that focus on the long-term. Horizon 2020 is the latest of their framework programs for research and innovation. With a budget of €80 billion, and spanning 2014-2020, it provides an enormous ecosystem of initiatives that supports all aspects of the research game.

For CRCs, this program offers an incredible opportunity to become involved with large global research endeavours, showcase your own research and capabilities to a large public and private sector audience, build and extend your international networks and foster long-term international partnerships.

The cornerstone of Horizon 2020 are the collaborative projects. We often explain to Australian audiences that these projects are comparable to our very own CRCs, in that they involve multiple partners from a variety of sectors, have long-term funding, and are concerned with solving problems that are directly relevant to society.

The major, broad, topic areas in Horizon 2020 are:

• Information and Communication Technologies
• Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
• Space
• Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing
• Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy
• Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy
• Smart, Green and Integrated Transport
• Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials
• Europe in a changing world – Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies
• Secure societies – Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens
• Science with and for Society

You can find out more about Horizon 2020 at the European Commission’s official website ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020. In our next article we will give you some proven pathways for entering Horizon 2020.