Thu, 13 May, 2021
Following successful trade deal negotiations in 2020, the UK confirmed that it would join the Horizon Europe programme – the new €95.5bn funding programme from the European Commission (EC) – as an associated county with full eligibility to partner and coordinate projects in the programme.
Horizon Europe kicked off in May 2021, with the first calls for the European Innovation Council (EIC) and European Research Council (ERC) released in the run up period. Calls deadlines for the following six clusters are now expected to be in late August to early September 2021:
- Health, Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
- Civil Security for Society
- Digital, Industry & Space
- Climate, Energy & Mobility
- Agri, Food & Bio economy
- Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment
TWI is already preparing for these competitions so that it can maximise the chances of successful bid applications that can benefit TWI Innovation Network’s partners, TWI Industrial Member companies, and UK and Europe-based SMEs.
Horizon Europe will cover key themes such as: digitalisation of technology; sustainable industry; biodiversity; circular economy; secure and competitive energy supply; and the creation of resilience in land, oceans and water to combat the effects of climate change. These are in line with the EC’s European Green Deal, which aims to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050 by moving to a cleaner and more circular economy, restoring biodiversity and cutting pollution, all of which will contribute to boosting the efficient use of resources.
Following a great deal of interest in a presentation on Horizon Europe, given by Laurence Robinson, Technology Innovation Management (TIM) Team Manager at TWI as part of a TWI Innovation Network (TWIIN) webinar in March 2021, further webinars on Horizon Europe topic areas are now being planned so companies can keep up-to-date with developments. TWIIN is ideally placed to win funding in Horizon Europe as it is able to combine TWI’s competencies in industrial engineering with those of 15 Innovation Centres whose diverse expertise covers artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), 5G, blockchain, recycling, industry 4.0 and 5.0, and much more.
If you would like to access support from the TIM team through Industrial Membership or TWIIN services, including to collaborate with them on future public funding bids, please get in touch by emailing innovationmanagement@twi.co.uk.
Laurence explains “The TIM team’s role is to facilitate collaboration between TWI’s Industrial Members and the TWI Innovation network, so it liaises extensively with a broad range of potential partners representing industry, research and academia from the UK and overseas. Specifically, TIM builds projects and wins the public funding to support them.” Adding “During 2020, the TIM team worked with over 600 companies and organisations from 32 countries, winning over £40m in public funding for project consortia, of which over £10m was for TWI and its customer base, and its Innovation Centres.”