1. HORIZON
2020
research and innovation for growth ,
employment and sustainable development
September 2013 - n°29 - 10€

2. Club des Organismes de Recherche Associés
A pathway between French Public Research
Organisations and European Institutions
www.clora.eu

3. editorial
.................................................................................
Laurent ULMANN
Editor-in-chief, The European Files
W
hile the European Union faces one of the biggest economic
crises since it has been created, especially in terms of public
finances, it seems more than ever vital to implement an ambitious and
coordinated strategy to restart the European machine. In this context and
keeping this objective in mind, the European Commission will launch Horizon 2020, the 2014-2020
Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development. Horizon 2020 is indeed the
main instrument for implementing “Innovation Union”, one of the most crucial initiatives of the Europe
2020 growth strategy.
With a global budget of more than 70 billion euros, this unprecedented programme of worldwide
ambition is split into three pillars: excellence in science, competitive industries and tackling societal
challenges. Through these three axes, in a more multidisciplinary and flexible approach than it used
to be, the European Commission wants to take up scientific challenges linked to societal themes
such as health and demography, food safety and agriculture, clean and safe energy, intelligent
and green transports, climate change, raw materials and other resources, safety and protection of
liberties, innovative and inclusive societies.
This initiative fits into a global context of looking for the best cost/efficiency ratio to reduce
pressure on public finances. Indeed, research and innovation being factors of employment, growth
and competitiveness, the EU intends to grow a real single market for knowledge, research and
innovation. To do so, several key-elements have been targeted. It is for example to simplify, clarify
and thus ease the access to financings and innovation for SME’s, which are known to be one of the
most significant contributors to economic activity within the EU; or to promote the appearance of new
Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC) that gather organizations and make them collaborate
on long-term projects in order to tackle major social issues, through the European Institute of
Innovation and Technologies (EIT). Otherwise at the same time, Horizon 2020 should enable
industries to master Key Enabling Technologies (KET) while furthering a coherent and integrated
approach on innovative projects, especially on “close-to-market” projects. These technologies are
indeed a solid base for innovation and a competitive lever for the European industry.
Moreover, Horizon 2020 should contribute to strengthening and increasing scientific excellence in
Europe, which is the base of tomorrow innovation. To make Horizon 2020 understandable for as
many people as possible, simplifying the rules and procedures would have been a leitmotiv all along
the preparation and negotiation phase.
Upon this major change in the EU research program framework, this new issue of the European
Files allows the different contributors to bring their perspective on the many subjects mentioned.

4. TA B LE O F C O N TE N T S
.......................................................................................
EDITORIAL
Laurent Ulmann, Editor-in-chief, The European Files
Horizon 2020: research and innovation for europe
Europe 2020 Strategy: Innovation as a Driving Force for Growth Within the European Union
6
Horizon 2020 – Making Innovation Part and Parcel of EU Research Policy
7
Taking Leadership in the Digital Economy
8
Horizon 2020 and Digital Innovation
9
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science
Neelie Kroes, Vice-President and European Commissioner for Digital Agenda
David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, United Kingdom
KET as Tools to Make the EU More Competitive in Knowledge Economy
10
Unleashing Innovation in Europe
11
Innovation as a Factor of Growth and Employment in Europe
12
Should We Give Priority to Private Innovation in Times of Crisis of Public Finances?
13
Optimising the Benefits of Research Investment for European Jobs, Growth and Society
14
Horizon 2020
16
Geneviève Fioraso, Minister of Research and Higher Education, France
Barbara KUDRYCKA, Minister of Science and Higher Education, Poland
Dr. Philipp Rösler, Vice-Chancellor, Federal Minister of Economy and Technologies, Germany
Jan Vapaavuori, Minister of Economic Affairs, Finland
Seán Sherlock T.D., Minister of Research and Innovation, Ireland
Carmen Vela Olmo, State Secretary for Research, Development and Innovation, Spain
Scientific and industrial innovation
Horizon 2020 – Making it Better and Easier!
18
Encouraging Innovation Through “Horizon 2020”
19
The Role of Science and Innovation for Growth and Employment
20
Stairway to Excellence
22
Innovation at the Centre of Economic Activity for Entreprises
23
Research Organisations, From Excellent Science in Europe to Real Innovation
24
The EIT – Powering World-Class Innovation and Entrepreneurship Across Europe
25
The European Research Council: Scientific Excellence Through Frontier Research
26
Horizon 2020 and the Future of SMEs
27
Research and Technology Organisations: Key Players in Horizon 2020
28
Robert-Jan SMITS, Director General, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission
Teresa RIERA MADURELL, MEP, Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, European Parliament,
SD ITRE Coordinator
Dominique RISTORI, Director-General Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission
Maria Da Graça Carvalho, MEP, Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), European Parliament
Daniel Calleja, Director General of the DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission
Amanda Crowfoot, Director of Science Europe
Alexander von Gabain, Chairman of the EIT Governing Board
Helga Nowotny, President of the European Research Council
Philippe Lamberts, MEP, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, European Parliament,
Rapporteur on the European Institute of Innovation and Technology 2014-2020 and shadow rapporteur on the Horizon 2020 package
Muriel Attané, Secretary General of EARTO

5. .......................................................................................
EUREKA, a Key Instrument in the Horizon 2020’s Objective to Complete the European Research Area
30
Broadening the Innovation Landscape to Secure Jobs and Growth
32
How Horizon 2020 Improves the Competitiveness of Our Industry
33
Horizon 2020: From Research to Innovation
34
Kristin
Danielsen, Chairwoman
of EUREKA
Malcolm Harbour, MEP, Group of the European Conservatives and Reformists, European Parliament
Chairman of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO)
Nathalie ERRARD, Senior Vice President, EADS
Gerhard Huemer, UEAPME, Economic and Fiscal Policy Director
Innovation in energetic evolutions, food safety and agriculture
Putting Means in Common to Enhance Research and Innovation
Jean-Pierre AUDY, MEP, Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), European Parliament
36
Maximising the Impact of European RD on the EU’s Energy, Climate and Growth Agendas: an Industrial Perspective 37
Martha Crawford-Heitzmann, Senior Executive Vice President Research, Development and Innovation, AREVA
Innovations From Technological Breakthroughs: Keys to a Successful Energy Transition
38
RD and Innovation for “Green Growth” – the CIP Eco-Innovation Initiative
39
Reducing Energy Dependency by Investing in Alternative Energies
40
The Role of KETs (Key Enabling Technologies) in the 2020 European Innovation Strategy
42
The Potential of the Construction Sector for the Energy Efficiency Challenge
44
“Smart Grids”: an Evolution or a Revolution?
46
Science in Support of Innovation
49
Bernard BIGOT, Chairman of the CEA (Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives)
Patrick Lambert, Director, Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) of the European Commission
Fulvio Conti, Enel Group CEO and General Manager
Antti Ilmari Peltomäki, Deputy Director General of the DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission
Emmanuel Forest, President Energy Efficient Building Association (E2BA), CEO Bouygues Europe
Bernard DELPECH, Deputy director of RD of the EDF Group
Bernhard Url, Deputising Executive Director, EFSA
Innovation for citizens: employment, social inclusion, education and health
Putting People at the Centre of the Knowledge Triangle: the Cases of the EIT and MSCA
50
Public Service and Innovation – an Opportunity Brought by Necessity
51
Horizon2020 and the Innovative Medicines Initiative: Promoting Public-Private Partnerships to Improve Public Health
EFPIA, IMI, GSK, European Brand Council
52
KIC InnoEnergy in the H2020 Landscape
Claude Ayache, KIC Innoenergy, SE, Business Development European Affairs
54
Urban Innovation: a Crucial Stake for Reworking Cities
56
Sunset for Child Poverty on the Horizon?
58
Jan TRUSZCZYŃSKI, Director General, DG Education, training, culture and youth, European Commission
Edit HERCZOG, MEP, Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists Democrats, European Parliament, Treasurer of the SD Group
Julie DE BRUX, Studies and Prospective Manager at VINCI Concessions, Associate Research Fellow at Sorbonne Business School
Heather Roy, President, Social Platform
Management : The European Files / Les Dossiers Européens - 19 rue Lincoln, 1180 Brussels - www.lesdossierseuropeens.fr
- ISSN 1636-6085 - email: dossiers.europeens@wanadoo.fr Publication Director and Editor-in-Chief: Laurent ULMANN Assistant: Antoine LESSERTEUR

6. Horizon 2020: research and innovation for europe
Europe 2020 Strategy: Innovation as a Driving Force for
Growth Within the European Union
José Manuel Barroso
President of the European Commission
E
urope 2020, our common strategy for
sustainable growth and employment,
is our compass through the worst
financial and economic storm Europe has
been through since the end of the Second
World War. This long term vision of cleaner,
more innovative, more connected and job-rich
economy provides us with a clear direction
despite the many headwinds we have faced
and are still facing. Europe must consolidate
its public finances, but in ways that make its
economy emerge stronger from the crisis.
European Commission’s key message – to
focus investment in areas that will support
sustainable growth and employment – has
been heard. The European Union budget
for the next seven years is smaller than its
predecessor but increases spending on
research and innovation by a quarter – with
around €70 billion – and foresees more
targeted use of other growth-enhancing
funds. This is why I welcome the choice of the
Horizon 2020 programme as the focus of this
edition of the European Files, which sets out
in detail how the research budget will be put
to work for the benefit of our citizens.
Throughout the crisis, average European
Union spending on Research and
Development has remained remarkably
stable at two percent of gross domestic
product. There is a clear consensus across
society that this investment is vital for our
future wellbeing.
Nonetheless, we are still far from the goal
set a decade ago of devoting three percent of
GDP to research. Our traditional competitors,
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The European Files
the United States and Japan, still spend more
than us, and new economic powers, such
as South Korea, considerably more as a
percentage of GDP. We have great scientists
and leadership positions in many industries,
but there is evidence that Europe lags in
turning cutting-edge ideas into patentable
products and services, particularly in the
emerging technologies of tomorrow.
Much of the difference with our competitors
can be explained by lower private sector
investments in RD. Under Horizon 2020, we
will join forces with industry to invest €18 billion
in areas vital to the success of our economies
and our Europe 2020 strategy. And there will
be a significant share of dedicated European
Union funds available for innovative small and
medium-sized enterprises.
We will support five public-private
partnerships in innovative medicines, aeronautics, bio-based industries, fuel cells
and hydrogen, and electronics, as well as
several public-public partnerships, with a
leverage effect amounting to an overall
investment of €22 billion over the next seven
years. By working together, these research
partnerships will boost the competitiveness
of European Union businesses in sectors that
already provide more than four million jobs.
They will also help accelerate the search
for solutions to societal challenges such as
reducing carbon emissions or providing new
antibiotics.
But investment is only part of the story.
We must also continuously work to improve
the framework conditions in which our innovators and companies do business and to
make our research systems more efficient,
ending wasteful duplication across borders
and joining forces where is makes sense.
For example, we are committed through
the SESAR research programme to reduce
congestion in our airspace, a problem which
costs airlines and their customers some
€5 billion a year.
This is why the aim of building a true
“Innovation Union” is as valid today as it was
when we presented it in 2010 as one of the
seven Europe 2020 flagship initiatives. It
is about fostering an environment, an ecosystem, that rewards and encourages new
solutions for today’s challenges, as well as
those we will face tomorrow, as our populations age and global competition increases
for finite natural resources.
More than 80 percent of the initiatives are
on track – from last year’s agreement on a
unitary patent to a capital increase at the
European Investment Bank, to expand the
finance on offer for innovative firms. But we
cannot afford to stand still.
We must also be alert to new challenges as
they arise and stand ready to respond. The
2013 Innovation Union Scoreboard shows
that, as a result of the crisis, innovation and
growth disparities between some European
regions have increased. We need to unleash
a fresh wave of reforms to make national
higher education, research and innovation
systems more effective and close the “innovation divide” between Member States, with
the aim of building a true European Research
Area.
As Europe shows signs of recovery, we
need to bring fresh dynamism to its economy.
Traditional industries in which Europe excels
need to develop new applications and
new business models in order to grow and
maintain their competitive advantage, while
in ICT-based businesses and in emerging
sectors Europe needs more high-growth
firms and innovation-based entrepreneurship.
This calls for and innovation-driven structural
change. Horizon 2020 can help drive this
process for the benefit of all European
citizens.

7. Horizon 2020 – Making Innovation Part and Parcel of EU
Research Policy
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn
European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science
K
nowledge is the currency of the 21st
century, but to truly have an impact on
our economy good ideas have to be put
to good use. That is why when we set out to
design a new research programme for the
European Union we thought hard about how
to support the whole innovation chain, from
scientific breakthrough to real-world application. The result is Horizon 2020 – the EU
programme for research and innovation.
Research aims to generate new knowledge,
either to solve specific challenges or simply
to satisfy human curiosity. These goals are
equally valuable. Intellectual inquiry is a
worthwhile pursuit in itself, and science helps
satisfy our desire to understand the world
around us. It reveals to us the most profound
ideas. Innovation is then about creating
economic value out of the knowledge gained,
by turning it into new products, processes or
services or, more simply, new ways of doing
things. With Horizon 2020, we have brought
both these sides together within a single
framework programme.
Europe has always been strong at advancing
science, thanks to its centuries old university
system and the cultural values that have underpinned our society since the Enlightenment.
But too often in recent years we have seen
our bright ideas taken up more quickly by other
regions in the world to the detriment of growth
and employment here. It sometimes seems
that we are happier dreaming about the future
than building it.
This is why the European Commission has
called for the European Union to become an
‘Innovation Union’, the name of our flagship
initiative under the Europe 2020 strategy. Our
goal is to create a sustainable economy fuelled
by ideas and creativity, capable of linking into
global value chains, seizing opportunities,
capturing new markets and creating highquality jobs. Horizon 2020 will help us meet
these objectives in multiple ways through its
three interconnected pillars.
Firstly, more money than ever will go to
fundamental research, or “blue sky” thinking.
Thanks to European Research Council and
Marie Skłodowska-Curie grants, introduced in
2007, Europe has slowed the flood of top talent
to other regions of the world. Mobility is to be
welcomed when it is driven by scientific opportunity, but not when the root cause is personal
frustration with one’s career chances at home.
This is why in parallel we are determined to put
in place a European Research Area founded
on more transparent and open opportunities
for all.
Secondly, significant resources will go
to projects that support Europe’s industrial
competitiveness. One example is our
investment in Key Enabling Technologies.
These technologies, such as advanced manufacturing, nanotechnology and biotechnology,
underpin innovation across many industries
and sectors. We will invest to establish a lead
in these areas.
We will also build on the industrial
partnerships launched in recent years and
provide more funding than ever before for
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
We need to match our competitors’ level of
business expenditure on RD.
Through a dedicated SME Instrument we
will provide funding for small firms to bridge
the gap between research and innovation.
Support will be provided for all types of innovation, including service, non-technological
and social innovations. We will also expand
access to finance for companies through
loans, loan guarantees or equity provided by
financial intermediaries such as the European
Investment Fund.
Thirdly, we will encourage cross-disciplinary,
innovative thinking to tackle the big societal
challenges that confront us, from ageing
populations to climate change to secure
energy supplies. The European Institute of
Innovation and Technology (EIT) – under the
Horizon umbrella – will contribute through
its Knowledge and Innovation Communities,
fostering links between higher education,
research and innovation and the creation of
start-ups and spin offs.
In Horizon 2020, more money will be
available for testing, prototyping, demonstration and pilot type activities, for business
driven RD, for promoting entrepreneurship
and risk taking, and for shaping demand for
innovative products and services. We will
provide more awards and prizes, encouragement for the most innovative public authorities and the most creative thinkers. Most
importantly, we will make participation easier
by cutting red tape for our researchers and
businesses.
We also want to widen participation in
Horizon 2020 to bridge Europe’s innovation divide. The Commission’s Regional
Innovation Scoreboard for 2012 shows that
many countries and regions in Europe need
to do more. While research excellence may
not be everywhere, I firmly believe that it can
develop and thrive anywhere, and Horizon
2020 will lend a helping hand by encouraging links between institutions in strong and
under-performing regions. But countries must
also use the possibilities offered by the new
European Structural and Investment Funds to
build up their own RI infrastructures.
We all need to think innovatively to thrive in
today’s world. No single programme will make
this happen alone, but Horizon 2020 is an
important piece of the puzzle.
The European Files
7

8. Horizon 2020: research and innovation for europe
Taking Leadership in the Digital Economy
Neelie Kroes
Vice-President and European Commissioner for Digital Agenda
T
he internet is profoundly shaping our
modern society and has become a vital
infrastructure for the world’s economy.
The web only started two decades ago as an
important tool for improving communication.
Since then it has rapidly transformed society, as
well as all sectors of the economy and gave rise
to the emergence of new markets. By now it is
widely accepted that the growth of the so called
‘digital economy’ not only has a wide impact on
the traditional economy, but also has become
more and more intertwined with it. One simply
does not exist without the other.
The secret of its success has been the combination of widespread network coverage, sufficient
data transfer capacity, affordable devices for
citizens and connectivity options. This has
encouraged innovation in digital products and
services, with a clear impact on economic growth,
social behaviour and addressing societal challenges. Today we cannot imagine our logistic and
transport systems, financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, security services, the
energy sector or modern agriculture to function
without the use of digital technologies and the
network infrastructure to support these. From
Bosch to Schneider Electric, from Siemens to
Alcatel and Telefonica, from STMicroelectronics,
ARM to HBSC, Thales or Philips, Danone, Shell
or Unilever and media giants like Bertelsmann:
the European RD intensive industry, SME’s,
research institutes, mass media corporations and
telecom operators are all part of the same digital
value chain.
Further growth and development of the digital
economy and society will not only depend on
investments in networks and technological
progress, but also whether citizens, businesses
and research organisations can rely on the
internet and feel that their data are secure. All
these stakeholders, as one could say, participate
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in the digital ecosystem and together they define
the future of our European society and economy.
The digital economic value chain is part of a
digital ecosystem in the broadest sense of the
word. And this value chain has the potential to
take global leadership in the digital economy in
key sectors, under the right conditions.
That Europe can achieve this digital leadership
has been proven in the 90’s, when Europe held
a strong position in ICT – supported by a procompetitive EU telecommunications framework,
stimulated by investments in innovation and
standards like GSM, 3G and strengthening the
position of world leading companies such as
Nokia and Ericsson. The situation nowadays, as
we all now, is quite different from then. As a result
of the digital economy, competition has become
more global, faster and much more intense. And
Europe is lagging behind, even more so because
of the threat that the economic crisis and
constraints on investments are eroding European
competitiveness. This crisis calls for industry and
governments to make structural reforms and at
the same time to embrace digital technology to
the full. The future of our key economic sectors
depends on improving connectivity through the
availability of fast, reliable and secure networks
for its stakeholders, the use of digital technologies, an open internet and reinforcing cooperation on the whole digital value chain.
Why is this important? The development of
the internet is entering its third phase. After
having evolved from a data network connecting
PC’s with wires, currently wireless connections
between smart phones or tablets are the key
source of recent internet expansions, product and
service innovations and an exponential growth of
data. For example, the last two years 90% of our
existing data has been produced. In two days in
2013 the world produced as much data as in the
year 2003. Cloud computing, data mining and big
data analytics will increasingly play a decisive
role in new business models.
In this third phase the rise of the ‘internet of
things’ is also expected to play a dominant role,
through which devices at home or in public space
will be interconnected to assist, for instance
traffic management, energy efficiency, healthy
ageing, or the retail industry. The European
high tech industry holds a strong technological
position to play a leading role in the internet of
things and together with other partners from the
equipment and manufacturing industry in the
digital ecosystem they can create the products
and services for the near future which serve the
whole value chain.
These products and services will also generate
huge amounts of data. To manage this we need
high speed, and secure access to the internet,
which requires investments in super-fast fixed
and mobile broadband infrastructure. As such the
European telecom sector is the backbone of our
digital economy. As the OECD recently pointed
out in its Communications Outlook, growth in
traditional services as SMS and telephony is
expected to be limited. The future business
models for the telecom sector will be based on
large amounts of data. Revenues corresponding
to data services are growing at double digit rates
in most OECD countries, and transport of data
is now the major source of growth for network
operators, according to the OECD. And Europe
has to be ready for this.
Being too late is more costly, than being too
early. Being in time is even better. And the moment
is now. Just looking at the Cloud Strategy, Start
Up Europe, the Micro and Nano strategy or the
actions on cyber security: Our European Digital
Agenda has all the right building blocks in place
to come out of this crises even stronger. The
challenge is to step up the actions, to reinforce
the coherence of the whole innovative value
chain of the European Digital ecosystem and
realise its potential. For this, the next logical step
is to simplify regulation in order to have an even
more competitive telecoms sector, which can
serve as the sustainable backbone of our digital
economy. In connection, Europe needs more
and better coordinated spectrum, standardised
access, an open internet, reduced roaming costs
and consumer protection. It goes without saying
that internet security and more autonomy will
become even stronger a priority across the digital
value chain: From creating a European cloud to
equipment manufacturing, from the chips to the
web platforms and operating systems.
Where the telecom sector goes, Europe’s
digital economy goes.

9. Horizon 2020 and Digital Innovation
David Willetts
Minister of State for Universities and Science, United Kingdom
I
nnovation in the 21st century will increasingly
draw on a wide range of capabilities and skills.
If Europe is to be the place where future innovations are brought to the market and the grand
challenges of our time addressed we need funding
programmes which support RD and innovation
all the way from blue skies research to nearto-market development activities. Additionally the
insights of the social sciences and the humanities
need to be embedded in projects from the outset
to ensure that the human dimension of innovation
is addressed. Support needs to be available
with minimal bureaucratic complexity – nothing
discourages innovative businesses, particularly
SMEs, more than endless form filling. I am glad
to say that Horizon 2020 meets all these criteria.
However Horizon 2020 is not the universal
panacea – we will still need to ensure the EU
has an environment that welcomes innovation.
We must have regulatory environments that
actively support and promote bringing innovative
solutions to market at both EU and Member State
levels: without that we are simply wasting our
investments.
Given their underpinning role in innovation,
RD in ICTs will be a key component of Horizon
2020. I welcome support for RDI in the ICT
Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) – and for
other ICTs that are not KETs, but are nevertheless
vital, such as software technologies. Here I will
highlight three examples of important activity in
ICT for which we need concerted EU-level action
of the kind that Horizon 2020 will allow – big data,
smart cities and 5G.
The challenge of big-data, one of our
“8 great technologies”, is an area of massive
innovation potential that Horizon 2020 can help
us tap. For vast dynamic datasets or simulations requiring millions of compute cycles, we
need: world-leading e-infrastructures; software
and middleware that can keep up with rapidly
evolving scientific methodologies and advances
in hardware; and a highly skilled workforce.
In the UK we have established the cross-sector
E-infrastructure Leadership Council to advise us
on all aspects of e-infrastructure including skills.
Recently the government invested £37.5M in
developing The Hartree Centre, a premier supercomputer embedded within a highly skilled team.
We need more such examples to strengthen
Europe’s leading position in RDI and to
maintain and grow its economic competitiveness.
To this end the Public Private Partnership on
High Performance Computing provides the EU
with an opportunity to promote collaborations
between the HPC community in the EU and with
the sectors that can and should benefit from it.
Support for RD in ICT, more secure systems,
and open data need to come together to meet
the challenges of smart cities. With urbanisation
in the EU around 70%, and higher in the more
developed Member States, these challenges
are, perhaps, at their most acute in Europe. This
is resulting in the search for more innovative
approaches to managing our urban systems.
We need to make our city environments
more sustainable, “liveable” and resilient to
economic shocks by linking ICT systems to a
modern physical infrastructure and the data
generated through the “Internet of Things”. This
will provide business and citizens with the information they need, when they need it. In the UK
we are working hard to achieve this change in the
way that services
are delivered. In
addition to pilots
and demonstrators
on smart grids,
telecare and intelligent
transport
systems, we have
launched a number
of demonstrators on
how these services
might be integrated.
Our
Technology
Strategy Board has
launched a Future
Cities
Catapult
Centre, with support
of £50M over five years, to work with cities,
business and academia to develop and disseminate integrated approaches to urban services.
UK firms, such as Arup, Mott MacDonald and
Living PlanIT, are at the forefront of designing
future cities, and so I hope that, as we develop
further UK experience and capability, UK organisations will be able to play an active role in the
European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities
and Communities launched last October.
In the UK we are also looking to drive innovation
through our Industrial Strategies. For example
the Information Economy Industrial Strategy
highlights the importance of 5G and describes
how the Innovation Centre at the University
of Surrey will build on an initial investment of
£50M from a combination Government and
mobile operators and infrastructure providers to
establish a test-bed for 5G. We foresee strong
links between this work and the 5G Public Private
Partnership.
ICT-related investments in Horizon 2020 will
have an underpinning role in innovation. We
need effective co-ordination between technology
development, integration with other RD areas
and improvements in human capital combined
with strong links to national strategies and
investments. This, combined with an environment
where regulation pulls-through innovation, can
make the EU the ideal environment for innovation
to 2020 and beyond.
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9

10. Horizon 2020: research and innovation for europe
KET as Tools to Make the EU More Competitive in Knowledge
Economy
Geneviève Fioraso
© Benjamin Chelly
Minister of Research and Higher Education, France
What would bring the deployment of Key
Enabling Technologies (KETs) to the
European economy?
The road to a more sustainable and wealthier
economy requires new goods and services. Whilst
significant part of such goods and services that
will be available in the markets of the 2020’s are
as yet undetermined, driving forces behind their
development will be research and innovation and
the deployment of Key Enabling Technologies
(KETs) defined as micro- and nanoelectronics,
photonics, nanotechnologies, biotechnologies,
advanced materials and advanced manufacturing systems.
Applications of KETs directly or indirectly
stimulate competitiveness and generate jobs,
growth and wealth in the European economy.
We particularly need to concentrate our efforts on
economic sectors which are knowledge intensive,
bear strong growth potential and will create applications tackling great societal challenges. In fact,
many application sectors are already present in
EU Member States, e.g. automotive, chemicals,
electronics, textiles, energy, environment, pharmaceuticals, health, construction, aerospace and
telecommunication. In order to support growth
and job creation, we have to reinforce Europe’s
manufacturing capacity because we are losing
market share. KETs’ pilot lines should help in this
path.
What is the added value of European Union
regarding KET?
Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) are some
of these key sectors deserving a strong and
coherent European industrial strategy, mobilizing all relevant EU policies and the European
Commission, together with Member States,
leading an extensive strategy aimed at fostering
competitiveness of European industries in the
knowledge economy.
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It has been initiated by the European
Commission High Level Group on Key Enabling
Technologies (HLG-KETs) under the vision of
Vice-President of the European Commission
M. Antonio TAJANI and the presidency of M. Jean
Therme, Director of Technological Research,
CEA, France.
It was outlined in the communication on Key
Enabling Technologies A European strategy for
Key Enabling Technologies – A bridge to growth
and jobs proposed by Vice-President Tajani in
June 2012 and in the Council conclusions on Key
Enabling Technologies of 11 October 2012.
This is exactly the vision that we are expecting
from the European Union in the current critical
economic situation of Europe. France’s priority
in this context is to focus European and national
policies and funding on the restoration of
economic growth and the creation of jobs. This
is the priority that the French President has
pursued in the Multiannual Financial Framework
negotiations.
For all these Key Enabling Technologies,
which are so critical for the development of
applications, our responsibility of national and
European decision makers is to ensure Europe’s
capacity to gain leadership in development
and deployment of these technologies and to
establish the most favourable conditions for
attracting private investments and strengthen
industrial competitiveness.
What has been achieved so far and what
remains to be done?
More than one year after the announcement of
the EU strategy on KETs, time has come to look
at the first results:
- regarding support to RD in KETs, encouraging
actions have been already launched under the
7th framework programme, like the ENIAC pilot
lines, that should be pursued with Horizon 2020;
however, we still need to have a clearer picture
on how EU/national/regional funding sources will
be combined in support to large scale multiKET
projects;
- as recalled by Vice-President Neelie KROES
on the occasion of the communication on New
European Industrial Strategy for Electronics,
competition policy matters to properly support
KETs: here, we need the Commission to progress
on the adaptation of state aid rules to the specific
role played by KETs in Europe’s competitiveness.
We need urgently to successfully implement the
European strategy proposed by the Commission
and make Europe “the place” for the future of
Micro and Nano Electronics industry!
What is your personal involvement in
promoting KET?
Together with Mr Arnaud Montebourg, French
Minister for Industrial Renewal, I took the
initiative to organise a ministerial KET Summit
on February 7 in Grenoble, within the innovation
pole for micro nanotechnologies MINATEC, with
the participation of Vice-President Tajani and my
colleagues ministers from Germany, Italy, Spain
and UK.
It provided a unique opportunity to engage
and agree upon a series of KETs-related actions
for European competitiveness and economic
growth. In particular, we agreed on the necessity
to ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the High-Level Group and of the KETs
strategy as set out in the European Commission’s
communication of 26 June 2012. We also called
for establishing within Horizon 2020 a coherent
and strategic approach to research and innovation programming for KETs. We asked for
effective framework to synergistically combine EU
funding from Horizon 2020 grants, EIB financial
instruments and Structural funds on KETs
research and innovation projects. And finally,
we asked the European Commission to review
the effectiveness of the State Aid framework for
Research Development and Innovation, including
the impact on industrial investment, in order to
make sure that it is consistent with the goal of
creating the conditions for European competitiveness vis-à-vis the rest of the world.
KET’s strategy has been integrated within the
french “Programme d’Investissements d’Avenir”
and the Research Agenda “France Europe 2020”
I launched in May 21. I am convinced that these
technologies are strategic to face future societal
challenges as Ageing, Health, Climate Change,
Sustainable and renewable energies, security...

11. Unleashing Innovation in Europe
Barbara KUDRYCKA
Minister of Science and Higher Education, Poland
T
he whole world held its breath when Felix
Baumgartner jumped from more than
38,969 meters above the Earth, breaking
the speed of sound before releasing his
parachute.
What makes a man want to jump out of space
and free fall at supersonic speeds kilometres down
to earth? Without knowing if he could land safely
or not. Money and fame may have nothing to
do with it. The most important is the desire to do
something that no one else has done before. This
is exactly what links Felix Baumgartner and world
top innovators.
In Europe, we need people who are willing to risk
creating what was once thought impossible, people
who are willing to build new, innovative technologies.
We should motivate them and focus on giving them
the best working conditions possible. For several
years now, Polish government and the Ministry of
Science and Higher Education has been building a
system aimed at fostering innovation. Compulsory
maths exam at the end of secondary education,
promotion of engineering studies, increased funds
on research, construction of ultra-modern laboratories, tax deductions for research, transition of
property rights to scientists – these are only few
examples of what new regulations have to offer.
People – long-term investment
Since 2007, the number of graduates from faculties
of key importance for knowledge-based economy
has grown by 20%. This is the result of the special
government program. We have spent almost
1.2 billion PLN for modernising engineering studies
and granting scholarships for SMT students. What is
more, outstanding students receive grants for their
research projects – 7 million PLN Future Generation
Programme and Diamond Grants of more than
30 million PLN. The world’s media – The Guardian,
Financial Times and NBC News – have recently
reported that young talented Poles, speaking
English and other foreign languages fluently, are the
main attraction for investors.
During the last few years, we have built from
scratch a system to support young scientists. They
can receive grants from multiple institutions: the
Ministry, the National Research and Development
Centre and the National Science Centre. The latter
is obliged to spend over 30% of its budget for grants
dedicated to young researchers.
Funding for applied research has been steadily
increasing. While applying the modern approach
to research funding, we are implementing the
public-private partnership programmes. The PPP
model is applied in a number of highly-funded
projects focused on delivering innovative solutions
in energy sector, aviation and medicine. The best
way to increase the effectiveness of publicly funded
projects and investments is to define research
agendas in cooperation with business. In that way
they can really meet the needs of business owners.
All Across Europe – including Poland – we are still
lacking people who can move easily between two
worlds: science and economy. This is why we are
mostly proud of our 500 Top Innovators Programme.
It’s a 2-month intensive course at the top world
universities (Berkley, Stanford, Cambridge) aimed at
training by 2015 up to 500 best Polish scientists and
representatives of innovation centres. We believe
that the participants, inspired by the experience and
knowledge gained from the greatest innovators of
modern science and business, will bring new inspirations to help build culture of innovation in Poland.
After returning from Silicon Valley winners of the
programme told me that they had caught a virus
of innovation. Now it infects their universities and
research institutes.
Education outcomes will translate into innovation
in the next few years. And what about now?
Create the right conditions for science and do
not disturb
Perhaps this is what matters the most, good
working conditions for those who create innovations: scientists. Over the last 6 years Poland
has massively invested in research and innovation sector. Thanks to European funds we have
invested more than 26 billion PLN in over 200 new
laboratories, reconstruction of another 2000 and
top-class research equipment. Poland today has
one of the world’s most modern RD infrastructure
that is ready to welcome top-class researchers and
ambitious international projects.
The small number of patents or limited level
of research commercialization is not a result of
low creativity among scientists in Poland, but it’s
because they work in an environment that doesn’t
encourage them enough to explore and to think
about their own financial matters. We’re trying to
change that by many new instruments, first of all
by transferring property rights to inventions to the
scientists.
This process will be enhanced by new proinnovation tax regulations we are going to
implement in a close future. Private companies will
be allowed to donate 1% corporate income tax to
chosen academic institution. This will help us in
promoting stronger cooperation between business
and science in Poland. A new system for assessing
quality performance of scientific institutions will rate
the level of research commercialization and the
number of inventions. This could be a good hint for
investors on where to invest their funds.
Moreover, we are liberalizing the law on public
procurement in order to facilitate researchers’
investments in research equipment. We estimate
that this legislative change will accelerate research
outcomes by up to one year.
To help scientists and business to carry out
applied projects we want to finance the final stages
of research commercialization in order to overcome
so-called valley of death that is blocking the
progress of scientific innovations from the laboratory to commercially successful businesses.
If we look at research outcomes from the demandsupply perspective, we can clearly see that the innovation market depends strongly on growing (or not)
demand. If the supply is created with a large share
of the state budget, the demand depends strongly
on economic sector. I believe that Horizon 2020
will help Europe strengthen the bridges between
science and the economy.
The European Files
11

12. Horizon 2020: research and innovation for europe
Innovation as a Factor of Growth and Employment in Europe
Dr. Philipp Rösler
Vice-Chancellor, Federal Minister of Economy and Technologies, Germany
E
uropean innovation and economic power
are essential to ensure future prosperity
for all Europeans. In addition to a lack of
fiscal discipline, it is principally the problems
of competitiveness of individual countries that
have led to the emergence of the euro crisis.
In the face of global competition the task now
is to re-strengthen growth and competitiveness
in Europe. There is no magic formula here;
each country faces its own challenges.
Important areas for action are an efficient public
administration and constitutional structures,
a modern infrastructure, a wage policy based
on productivity, a sound public financial policy
and optimal conditions for education, research
and innovation. New products and services are
the key to strengthening long-term growth and
prosperity. With innovation we can successfully
overcome societal challenges – I need only
12
The European Files
mention climate change or demographic
development.
All EU Member States, and we in Germany,
are challenged to further improve the business
environment and to boost research and
innovation in these times of a much-needed
high-level consolidation policy. This applies
particularly to those euro countries needing
to address weaknesses in competition with
structural reforms following the loss of their
own monetary policies and flexible exchange
rates. It is possible that these countries
need the solidarity and support of currently
economically stronger states. I particularly
welcome, therefore, research and innovation
that play in important role in the financial
framework of the EU: Increased budgets
for European research funding, particularly
through the ‘Horizon 2020’ programme, are
being provided.
In European funding,
it is all about tackling
global challenges and
developing key European
technologies. But this
can only be a small
contribution. The largest
share of research and
innovation funding must
come from the private
sector. The EU has
already decided since
the turn of the century
to invest 3% of GDP on
research, development
and innovation, but we
are currently only at 2%. With an EU gross
domestic product of 13 trillion euros, this means
a gap of about € 130 billion. This demonstrates
that neither the EU budget or the national
budgets alone are able to fill this gap. First
and foremost, we must provide a framework to
allow companies to significantly increase their
research and innovation efforts. This includes
allowing the greatest possible freedom for
creativity and entrepreneurship, but also stable
and proper cost arrangements, such as for the
protection of intellectual property.
We need a social environment that is open
to new technologies. We should not only
look at the technological risks but also at the
opportunities. This applies for example in
genetic engineering, with its capacity to cure
diseases thanks to its further development.
Finally, we should also allow those with new
ideas and products to achieve the social
recognition they deserve, including incidentally,
those who have to have a second go at
establishing their businesses. For that is the
essence of innovation: You never know where
you land. We should continually be embracing
renewal as we go forward.

13. Should We Give Priority to Private Innovation in Times of
Crisis of Public Finances?
Jan Vapaavuori
Minister of Economic Affairs, Finland
H
orizon 2020, the EU Framework
Programme for Research and
Innovation 2014-2020, comes into effect
at a time when Europe faces the most severe
economic challenges it has experienced
during the industrial era. Europe is losing its
competitiveness, an increasing share of global
research and development is moving to Asia,
and European industries face enormous
pressure for structural change. In my view, the
timing of Horizon 2020, and how it has been
designed towards strengthening the innovation
capacity of Europe, will provide us with ample
tools for meeting these challenges.
Horizon 2020, the Innovation Union and the
European Research Area are set to respond
to the economic crisis, invest in future jobs
and growth, address great societal challenges
and help us reach the goal of strengthening
the EU’s global position in research and
innovation.
It is important, particularly in times of crisis of
public finances, that public funding leverages
investment and engagement of the private
sector in innovation in the most effective way.
There are several features in Horizon 2020
that facilitate and encourage such engagement by enterprises. Some of them may
serve as good practices for Member States
that also need to streamline their research
and innovation funding programmes, not only
to save administrative costs but also to attract
businesses on a wider basis as key players in
the programmes .
Horizon 2020 will bring a host of initiatives
and programmes together, and offer a more
simple access to funding compared to previous
programmes. Reducing the number of sets of
rules and leveling differences of funding rates
both between and within projects will facilitate
participation of enterprises in research and
innovation projects. Furthermore, I warmly
welcome many of the changes that increase
the attractiveness of research projects to businesses, including the widening of the concept
of innovation to new forms of innovation and
extending funding to cover the whole innovation cycle with funding instruments ranging
from pre-commercial procurement to inducement prizes, dedicated loans and equity
funding.
Finland has been the top performer in the
EU in business RD spending (2.67% of GDP
in 2011 and some 70 % of the overall national
RD expenditure). However, business RD
investments have concentrated in a rather
small number of large firms and are currently
affected by the difficult economic situation.
The Finnish Government’s introduction of RD
tax incentives to complement direct RDI
funding is expected to increase the number
of enterprises carrying out RDI activities.
However, we still face the challenge of getting
more SMEs to engage in innovation activities.
Also at the European level, I find it important
that SMEs are provided with simple access
to Horizon 2020 projects. Large companies
often have better resources to work their way
through the selection process than smaller
companies, and they may also have a longer
term research and innovation strategies. To
mobilize the innovation potential of SMEs,
Horizon 2020 needs to offer innovative SMEs
clear strategic objectives and benefits gained
by networking of companies.
A clearly stated objective in the Finnish
innovation policy is to give the business sector
a greater responsibility in defining strategic
goals for their long-term research efforts. Six
Strategic Centers for Science, Technology
and Innovation (SHOKs) were established
in nationally important fields of research to
provide funding and a platform for companies,
universities and research institutes to work
together in the spirit of open innovation.
The SHOKs in Finland are expected to be
natural partners for the European Institute of
Technology at national level.
In Horizon 2020, we should also expect the
business sector to assume greater responsibility in defining long-term research goals. The
Competitive Industries objective in Horizon
2020 is set to make Europe a more attractive
location to invest in research and innovation by
promoting activities where businesses set the
agenda. It will provide major investment in key
industrial technologies, maximise the growth
potential of European companies by providing
them with adequate levels of finance and help
innovative SMEs to grow into world-leading
companies.
A key prerequisite for Europe’s attractiveness to business investment is that Horizon
2020 succeeds in its goal to make Europe
a leader in industrial technologies. Major
research efforts focusing on key enabling technologies will provide a strong basis for this.
Responding to increasingly complex societal
challenges requires that all actors in the
society participate in innovation. This includes
the public sector. Public-private partnerships
and public procurement of innovative solutions
to public sector challenges will provide useful
tools for encouraging businesses to help the
public sector fulfill its tasks more efficiently in
new innovative ways.
All in all, we cannot afford leaving the power
of the business sector to innovate untapped,
when striving to meet our goals for 2020.
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13

14. Horizon 2020: research and innovation for europe
Optimising the Benefits of Research Investment for European
Jobs, Growth and Society
Seán Sherlock T.D.1
Minister of Research and Innovation, Ireland
I
t is my strong belief that the political
agreement that the Irish Presidency
helped to secure between the Council, the
Commission and the European Parliament
on the EU’s €70bn research and innovation
programme, Horizon 2020, will boost jobs and
growth across the European Union.
The Irish Government’s priorities for the
Presidency of the Council of the EU were
Stability, Jobs and Growth. We are convinced
of the massive role that Horizon 2020 has to
play in helping the EU achieve these objectives.
That’s why we worked hard since January,
through lengthy intensive negotiations,
to secure political agreement on the new
research and innovation programme for the
period 2014-2020.
Research and innovation are key drivers
of growth and job creation. The strategic
approach to research and innovation contained
in Horizon 2020 will develop, diffuse and drive
research across the European Union.
I know from our experience in Ireland that
research and development drives exports
and profitability and helps to secure and
grow jobs. The increased support for SMEs
within Horizon 2020 will help to increase the
economic benefits and job creation flowing
from the research conducted.
I would like to pay tribute to Commissioner
Geoghegan-Quinn and her team in DG
Research for their huge personal commitment
and creativity in championing within the
Commission, a framework programme for
research that will be the engine of the Union’s
recovery.
Great credit is also due to the rapporteurs
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The European Files
and negotiating team of the European
Parliament who showed great integrity and
commitment in their approach to this challenging dossier.
It was a very complex process to reconcile
the various interests of all the parties involved.
However, I welcomed the shared commitment
among all the parties concerned in advancing
these negotiations.
The programme will use a simplified funding
model which means that a greater number of
businesses and research providers – small
medium and large – can access the programme
with less bureaucracy. This in turn means
greater diversity in research, greater opportunities for business and greater benefits for
the economy at large. The inclusion of specific
measures for widening of participation will also
further enhance a diverse range of research
and research bodies. Importantly, funding,
via the European Institute of Innovation and
Technology, for projects in the areas of healthy
living and active ageing, raw materials, food
and added value manufacturing was also
included.
The Irish Presidency has also focused
hard on measures to progress the European
Research Area (ERA). Europe needs a unified
research area to attract talent and investment.
Remaining gaps must therefore be addressed
rapidly to create a genuine single market for
knowledge, research and innovation.
Our aim was to focus attention on and
secure substantial progress towards meeting
the target set by the European Council in
February 2011 to complete the European
Research area by 2014.
As Presidency, we tabled a policy debate
at the Competitiveness Council in February
on the issue of better access to scientific
information.
We also focused on how best to ensure
coordinated public investment in research
and innovation across Europe through Joint
Programming. To this end, we hosted a major
conference on the lessons from the experience to date of Joint Programming and the
way forward.
Following on from this, I chaired a policy
debate on joint programming at the May
Competitiveness Council, which was informed
by the report of the Presidency conference.
Enhancing and focusing international
cooperation in research and innovation is an
essential, cross-cutting and integral part of
the European Research Area. It plays a vital
role in contributing to the quality of European
research and the strengthening of the
economic, industrial and technological competitiveness of Europe.
At the May Competitiveness Council, we
discussed Council conclusions to endorse
the new strategy for developing international
cooperation in research and innovation,
as proposed in the Commission’s ERA
Communication, and in the Communication
from the Commission on “Enhancing and

15. focusing international cooperation in research
and innovation.”
We also hosted a key conference on how
best to promote an open labour market for
researchers. One of the core objectives of the
European Research Area is to make Europe
a more attractive location for researchers
through better career opportunities.
The Researchers and Career Mobility
conference provided the opportunity to gauge
progress in achieving these objectives and
how to make further advances through the
interaction of researchers and policy makers.
Through interactive workshops and discussion
fora, delegates developed practical initiatives
to help Europe overcome the well-known
barriers to mobility (between countries and/
or employment sectors) and to improve the
career prospects for researchers.
The conclusions of the conference will
target measures that will help achieve the ERA
objectives of better career opportunities for
researchers.
During June, the Irish Presidency hosted
three major research conferences. The Week
of Innovative Regions in Europe (WIRE)
Conference 2013 was held in Cork from 5-7
June. The WIRE Conference series is now
recognised as a key element in facilitation of
the European regional agenda.
EuroSME 2013 brought together hundreds
of entrepreneurs, policymakers, SME support
organisations from the private and the public
sector, and other intermediary bodies providing
their energy and ideas on how to improve the
EU eco-system for innovative enterprises.
Furthermore, it introduced SME-specific
measures in Horizon 2020 to this community.
The EuroNanoForum 2013 Nanotechnology
Innovation: From research to commercialisation
– the bridge to Horizon2020 conference was
held in Dublin from 18-20 June. The main focus
of the conference was the commercialisation of
nanotechnology, exploiting its potential for new
applications, pushing it from an enabling technology through to development and on to use
in end products. With Horizon2020 beginning in
2014, the conference looked at how nanotechnologies will fit into the new structure within the
key priority areas of Excellent Science, Industrial
Leadership and Societal Challenges.
1. During the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU,
Minister Sherlock chaired the meetings of the Research
Council as part of the Competitiveness Council and led
efforts to secure agreement on Horizon 2020.
The European Files
15

16. Horizon 2020: research and innovation for europe
Horizon 2020
Carmen Vela Olmo
State Secretary for Research, Development and Innovation, Spain
H
orizon 2020 is an ambitious program, not
only in terms of its budget, but also for
incorporating Research and Innovation
for the first time in the same initiative. A
change that targets providing coherent and
unwavering funding from knowledge’s creation
to its transfer to the market. A change that is
inspiring to make Research, Technological
Development and Innovation the true driving
forces for European growth.
Horizon 2020 holds its resources along three
axes that reinforce one another: Excellent
Science’s impulse to consolidate global
first level investigation in Europe. Industrial
Leadership’s promotion to make the EU a
more attractive place for investing in RTD and
innovation, allowing firms to determine the
agenda, and with support for helpful technologies like biotechnology or ITC (Information
and Communications Technologies). And
finally, a program focused on searching for
solutions to the great, which will face the
citizen’s major concerns, like health and
ageing, food safety, clean energy, integrated
transportation, action over climate and
resource efficiency, by setting to work in a joint
way resources and knowledge from different
disciplines and technologies
I have been involved in the consecutive
Framework Programmes since the year 1987,
when the European Union launched its 2nd
Framework Programme. Since then, I took part
in all the Programmes in one way or another.
When I say that they offer a real chance to
make big Science, stir up competitiveness and
excellence on research activity, I know what I
am saying.
For that reason, European Programmes
16
The European Files
have been a priority since the State
Secretariat for Research, Development and
Innovation was established. Just some days
after taking up the post we met with a delegation from Denmark’s Ministry of Science,
Technology and Innovation – when they held
the Presidency of the Council of the European
Union – to talk about the situation and perspective of the new program Horizon 2020; our
situation and our future in it. Since then, we
have been working on it, taking part intensively
in the different Competitiveness Councils.
And we were able to get involved in Horizon
2020’s with no “red lines” to restrict Spanish
researchers, firms or institutions’ aims. Spain
stands up for, among other matters, a bigger
coherency of the great initiatives funded in
Horizon 2020 and recognising the efforts of
the Commission to simplify the administrative
processes; efforts that should be extended to
facilitate new research groups and firms’ participation, thus easing the European research
and innovation prospect.
Our commitment with Horizon 2020 is
steady, so much that the Spanish Strategy for
Science, Technology and Innovation, and the
State Plan that implements it, have its spirit,
and match, with a few national adaptations,
its priorities and targets of excellence and
business leadership. Both Strategy and Plan
are considered – in the same way as Horizon
2020 – an unwavering road from the idea to
the market; a road pivoting around solving
the great global challenges of the society. Our
intention is increase in value science, technology and innovation’s ability to contribute
and stimulate knowledge, employment, growth
and Spanish competitiveness.
Spain increased its participation in the
Seventh Framework Programme in relation to
the previous. Spanish researchers, teams and
firms took part actively and, at the moment,
they represent more than 8% of European
Framework Programme’s participants. That
put us already in the group of countries with
bigger participations, like Germany, United
Kingdom, France and Italy.
About the priorities of Spain for the new
program H2020, they are focused especially
on the social challenges, although we are not
forgetting the science excellence, a fundamental aspect of research, and business
leadership, also a key part to impulse innovation. We consider as one of our obligations
giving back to society the effort made for
contribution and development of science and
want to do it by giving answers to the day to
day problems.
Therefore we focus our efforts on issues
such as energy, with particular emphasis on
renewable energy, where we are industrial
leaders, on solar and wind, and water, where
we have been participating actively in European
initiatives that are currently underway. We lead
the water JPI and I myself am a member of the
High Level Group EIP on Water as well as the
EIP on Raw Materials, with great potential to
develop this field and specialized companies.
In a country like Spain, where more than
three quarters of its territory is bordered by
sea, everything related to marine and maritime
resources, coastal management, environmental sustainability and transportation, are
a priority for us in such that as a peripheral
country this forces us to develop an efficient
and non-polluting transportation.
Health and healthy aging is another of our
priorities. It is well known that Spain is a retreat
country for many Europeans, so we have to
work to improve the quality of life in all stages
of life which is a challenge for innovation
activities.
I am trying not to be exhaustive, as all the
challenges are close to us and we will try to
respond to all, although the potentiality of the
country requires us to prioritize over others, to
optimize yields.
The goal is not other but taking part in the
most active possible way in Horizon 2020; this
is, definitively, the program which Europe –
and Spain alongside – should stand out with
and gain in competitiveness.

17. 









The budget distribution (in percentage) for Horizon 2020 is foreseen

as follows:

I. Excellent Science:








II. Industrial Leadership:






III. Societal Challenges:














Spreading excellence and widening participation
Science with and for society
European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
Joint Research Centre: non-nuclear direct actions
Total
31.73 %




22.09 %



38.53 %







1.06 %
0.60 %
3.52 %
2.47 %
100%
Source: Council of the European Union
The European Files




17


18. Scientific and industrial innovation
Horizon 2020 – Making it Better and Easier!
Robert-Jan SMITS
Director General, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission
H
orizon 2020, with a budget of around
€70 billion, will be roughly 25 percent
bigger than the previous framework
programme and we are determined to make
every euro count.
In our legislative preparations, we listened
carefully to those who criticised EU research
funding as being too bureaucratic. The result
is a programme that will be simpler for all, with
the clear aim of freeing up participants’ time
and resources so they can focus their effort in
laboratories and not on filling out forms.
Simplification is not an aim in itself; behind
it lies the clear policy objective of «widening»
participation in EU research. Through the
various initiatives we are taking within the
context of Horizon 2020, we want to encourage
new players (i.e. end users) and research
institutes in regions less accustomed to tapping
EU funding to take part; lever-in private sector
investment; and increase international cooperation in areas that are strategic to us.
The recalibration of the balance between
trust and control, between risk-taking and riskavoidance, has not been undertaken lightly
and there will be no relaxation in our fight
against fraud. It was recommended by all the
experts we consulted, supported by the Court
of Auditors and endorsed by European Union
leaders in February 2011.
What does it mean in practice? Above all,
simpler funding rules, with greater use of lump
sums and flat rates to cover participants’ costs.
Experience has taught us that the calculation
and justification of eligible costs was one of the
greatest sources of error in previous framework
programmes.
Therefore, Horizon 2020 will cover up to
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100 percent of actual costs linked directly to
participation in a project, or up to 70 percent
in the case of profit-making companies and
costs linked to innovation actions. But for other
costs, participants will get a 25 percent flat rate
sum.
In addition, we will strive for shorter administrative procedures. Lengthy times to grant
– which businesses have told us is one of the
biggest barriers to their participation – have
steadily been reduced during the current
framework programme. Now we will go further.
Our goal is a maximum eight months from
start to finish, except in the case of complex
projects.
In parallel, we are doing away with some
burdensome requirements, such as the need to
file paper copies of every supporting document
with us. Greater use of electronic means of
communication and a redesigned Participants
Portal will take us towards paperless grant
management. Alone these are small steps; but
they all add up: the savings in postage alone
in communicating with outside experts and
evaluators will be around €4 million a year.
As stated, our goal is greater participation, notably from the side of industry and
SMEs. Already there has been a positive
response from industry, which has indicated
its clear desire to continue the public private
partnerships launched after 2007. The five
Joint Technology Initiatives that have been
proposed are expected to mobilise total
investment of over €17 billion, of which the EU
budget contribution will be up to €6.4 billion.
This will provide vital funding for large-scale,
longer-term, risky research and innovation
initiatives.
We plan to build on our successful risksharing partnership with the European
Investment Bank which, since 2007, has
helped mobilise some €9 billion in EIB loans
to over 90 beneficiaries, supporting a total
investment in research and innovation of some
€30 billion.
We will also build on our relationship with
the European Investment Fund to provide
venture capital to innovative firms via specialist
intermediary funds or funds-of-funds and
will explore new ways to foster start-ups,
for example through a technology transfer
financial facility that would provide financing
of both proof of concept projects and the
subsequent launch of companies to exploit
these technologies.
When we launched our seventh framework
programme in 2007 we said we wanted small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to
eventually capture 15 percent of grant finance
available through our collaborative projects. We
are now at 17 percent and under Horizon 2020
aim to lift that to at least 20 percent – or nearly
€8 billion over the life time of the programme.
Some €2.5 billion will be distributed through a
dedicated SME Instrument, providing grants
for proof of concept studies and other close to
market activities.
Of course, the proof of all this pudding will
be in the eating. Only after the first calls for
funding are published this December will we
know exactly whether what we now have on
offer is what the market wants. That is why we
have committed to review all the main novelties
of Horizon 2020 by the end of 2017, and make
adjustments if necessary.
Nonetheless, I am confident that the
changes being introduced will make a real
difference to our shared goal of driving Europe
down a more innovative path and produce
results that will bring real solutions to some of
society’s biggest challenges.

19. Encouraging Innovation Through “Horizon 2020”
Teresa RIERA MADURELL
MEP, Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, European Parliament
SD ITRE Coordinator
A
fter lengthy and intense negotiations
over the last months, a political
agreement has been reached between
the Parliament and the Council on Horizon
2020, the new EU Framework Programme for
Research and Innovation. Therefore, the new
Programme is set to start on time, in January
2014, once the agreement is definitively
approved by both legislative institutions.
Horizon 2020 comes at the right moment,
with the European economy in turmoil and
when Europe needs more than ever to take the
necessary measures to create the economic
opportunities for the future. Certainly, much
of the thinking so-far has been short-term,
reacting to the immediate financial and
economic crisis through fiscal consolidation
and structural reform. Now this thinking proved
to be insufficient to ensure Europe’s growth
and global competitiveness, smart investment
aiming at advancing towards a knowledgebased economy arises as the only feasible
way out for Europe. This is precisely what
Horizon 2020 is meant to do during the coming
period 2014-2020.
By generating knowledge and pushing
forward its frontiers, and also by transferring
this knowledge into the productive system,
investment in Research and Innovation
through the new Horizon 2020 is an essential
mean for boosting Europe’s prosperity while
reshaping its future. This goes completely
along with the Europe 2020 Strategy, which
has set the objectives of smart, sustainable
and inclusive growth for Europe. The Strategy
accurately highlights the role of Research
and Innovation as key drivers of social and
economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, for years now, scholars
have demonstrated the strong link between
research, innovation and economic development and have consequently attached the
explanation for the present underperformance
of the EU to the weakness of this link.
Horizon 2020 is specifically aimed at
remedying this inadequate European link. To
do so, the new programme will gather under
a single Common Strategic Framework for
Research and Innovation (i) the successor of
the 7th Framework programme, (ii) the current
Competitiveness and Innovation Programme
and (iii) the European Institute of innovation.
Therefore, Horizon 2020 will support the
whole innovation chain, from basic research
to market uptake. This joint research and
innovation support will be structured in three
distinct but mutually reinforced priorities:
Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and
Societal Challenges.
First, Excellent Science will raise the level
of excellence in Europe’s science base and
ensure top research to secure Europe’s
long-term competitiveness. It will support
the best ideas, develop talent within Europe,
provide researchers with access to infrastructure, and make Europe attractive for the
best researchers.
Second, the Industrial Leadership priority
aims at making Europe a more attractive
location to invest in research and innovation,
by promoting activities where businesses set
the agenda. It will provide major investment
in key industrial technologies, maximise the
growth potential of European companies by
providing them with adequate levels of finance
and help innovative SMEs.
Third, the Societal Challenges priority is
meant to address major concerns shared
by European citizens. A challenge based
approach will cover activities from research to
innovation in areas of social concern such as
health, climate, food, security, transport and
energy.
The final agreement includes also two
new priorities that have been defended by
the Parliament since the beginning of the
negotiations. Both of the new priorities are
aimed at reinforcing the research and innovation system in Europe.
First, Horizon 2020 will support the spreading
of excellence and the widening of participation
in order to amplify the range of participants in
the programme. The main idea is to support
excellence wherever it exists. Widening this
excellence is a way to maintain and attract the
best researchers to Europe, avoiding a brain
drain that Europe is suffering in favour of some
of their most direct competitors in the global
economy.
Second, the new priority Science with and
for Society will gather different measures to
foster a genuine dialogue between science
and society in order to advance towards a
more responsible European research and
innovation. Attracting women and young
people to scientific and technological careers
will be also among the objectives of this new
priority. We cannot forget that Europe will need
at least 1 million new research jobs in the near
future to meet its ambitions of being one of the
most innovative regions of the planet.
With all these features the new Horizon
2020 presents itself as a key instrument that
can return Europe to the path of economic
and social progress. However, returning to
this path requires an ambitious and shared
investment in research and innovation that
cannot be anymore dependent on the political
and economic cycles. With a budget of around
70bn budget – the ITRE Committee in the
Parliament had asked for 100bn – Horizon
2020 is ready to do an essential part of the
job. However, if at least 3% of the EU’s GDP
is to be invested in research and innovation
by 2020, national governments will have to
subscribe, from now on, a commitment that
was lacking in their proposal for the new EU’s
Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020.
If we want to really boost innovation in Europe,
it is time to replenish the rhetorical European
commitment to innovation with tangible political
and economic support.
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19

20. Scientific and industrial innovation
The Role of Science and Innovation for Growth and
Employment
Dominique RISTORI
Director-General Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Commission
A
s Europe seeks to shift to a more
sustainable economy and to drive forward
competitiveness, it is time for science and
innovation to play a bigger part in restoring growth
and creating skilled jobs. This can be achieved
first of all by getting good ideas – scientific
advances and innovations – to the market.
Equally, we need responsive policy-making,
informed by good science. These two elements
are at the core mission of the Joint Research
Centre’s (JRC), the European Commission’s in
house science service.
Europe remains one of the strongest global
science and innovation players. Much of our
basic research is excellent, and we are doing
well at the kinds of multidisciplinary research that
defines today’s innovations. Moreover, we are
among the global leaders in renewable energies,
green technologies, information technology,
pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. But despite
these successes, the rest of the world is investing
heavily, catching up quickly, and they are creating
the right conditions to turn scientific discoveries
into innovations. To keep up with competition
from the US, as well as increasingly from China,
and other emerging economies, Europe must
make good investments in science, research
and innovation in order to reap future economic
returns. This is also an investment in our quality
of life and long-term sustainability.
The big challenge is to achieve these objectives
despite the economic crisis still affecting Europe,
and especially the Euro area. This is currently
felt in the record high unemployment levels,
low GDP growth rates and tough constraints on
most EU countries’ public finances. However,
we must also recognise that Europe can benefit
enormously from stimulating a real single market
for science and innovation, by reducing the duplication of effort and creating better synergies
between policies and initiatives. Our combined
20
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efforts should go into targeting innovations in key
sectors focusing on specific market needs, which
can result in concrete solutions and new jobs. In
doing so, Europe will make more effective use of
its resources and act with greater coherence and
influence on the rapidly changing world stage.
To be successful, Europe also needs to
develop and better exploit all its interconnections,
by bridging the spheres of science and research,
industry, policy-makers, and citizens. There
should be structured co-operation among the
main actors. And better synergies and interconnections should encompass not only European
and national levels, but also regional and local
levels.
The JRC is already active in this endeavour
in two ways in particular. First of all, by directly
operating the Smart Specialisation Platform, we
can assist European Member States and regions
in the development, implementation and review
of their ‘Research and Innovation Strategies for
Smart Specialisation’. Indeed, this will be the
basis for European Structural Funds investments
in the field of research and innovation from
2014 until 2020. It should serve to concentrate
resources on key priorities in the regions based
on their specific economic potential.
Secondly, through the new Science Parks
Initiative, the JRC in collaboration with the
International Association of Science Parks and
Areas of Innovation (IASP) aims to foster links
between science, academia, business and
industry recognising that science parks are
essential intermediaries in the innovation chain.
By bringing scientific research organisations and
the business community, as well as universities
and local administrations together in one location,
science parks ultimately support the take-up and
diffusion of science-driven innovation into the
economy.
Political support, backed by financial
commitments will help to make the Europe 2020
strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive
growth a reality. But we must all work more
closely together in fulfilling its goals. The EU’s
investment in research and innovation through
the new Horizon 2020 programme (2014-2020)
remains high, and strategically focused on
tackling today’s major societal challenges such
as climate change, cleaner energy and healthy
ageing.
As part of this programme, Commissioner
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn just recently unveiled
the Innovation Investment package, worth
over 22 billion euro for the next seven years in
medicines, cleaner skies, bio-based industries,
transport and energy and electronics manufacturing. Most importantly, the initiatives combine
financial resources from industry and public
funds to tackle complex issues at European level.
These new public-private partnerships should
give us results in terms of growth, and also
provide skilled jobs and better living standards
for European society as a whole.
Another ambitious target set by the European
Union aims to increase the share of EU GDP
coming from industry from the present 15%, up
to 20% by 2020. Here, European industry should
not only look at the quantitative side, but also for
high-quality achievements, through a long-term
competitive and sustainable industry.
Two approaches should be followed at the
same time. Europe should first keep on investing

21. and strengthening its high-growth and hightechnology manufacturing industries. One of
the reasons is that here, performance during the
financial and economic crisis continues to be the
best, with a production increase of 26% between
2005 and 2012, while for industry as a whole the
level of production in 2012 was almost the same
as in 20051.
On the other hand, the more mature industries
must innovate so as to increase their competitiveness in the worldwide arena. Let us take the
building sector as a good example: investments
to improve the energy efficiency of the older stock
of dwellings could leverage a series of important
cross-sectorial benefits and spill-over effects.
These include re-vitalising the sector, going a
step further in meeting the EU2020 environmental targets, not to mention lowering energy
costs for private households, which would have
a positive impact on the economy.
Furthermore, these investments in science,
research and innovation and the improved interconnections will benefit small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs), which still account for 99%
of EU companies and employ 67% of the private
sector’s workforce. For instance, the market
for the so-called ‘Key Enabling Technologies’
(KETs) – micro and nano-electronics, nanotechnology, photonics, advanced materials, industrial
biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing
technologies – is forecasted to go up from € 646
Billion (2008) to over € 1 Trillion in 2015. This
expanding market could offer an extremely rich
and varied platform of innovative solutions to help
our SMEs, and Europe should be ready to reap
the rewards.
Our involvement in standardisation activities
at European level is vital too. Making sure
that standards take into account economic
productivity, social needs and environmental
sustainability, the JRC plays a key role in
increasing the worldwide competitiveness of EU
businesses and SMEs in particular.
The JRC, as the in-house scientific service,
is well placed to continuously inform EU policies
so that the right policy solutions are provided
at the right moment. More than ever before,
the science-policy nexus plays an important
role in tackling, for example, the major climate
change challenges now and in the future. I would
especially like to underline JRC scientific work
that takes place on a global scale to monitor
extreme weather events and floods and assess
their economic and societal impacts.
We live in a time when information is key and
the JRC will therefore continue to play its part by
providing evidence-based support to EU policies,
as well as to science and industry stakeholders.
Along with the much needed investment in topquality science and work to foster the connections
that enhance innovation, we can remain on track
to kick-start sustainable growth and revitalise
employment in Europe.
1. Eurostat – Statistics in Focus: High-technology versus
low-technology manufacturing, January 2013: http://epp.
eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/
High-technology_versus_low-technology_manufacturing
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22. Scientific and industrial innovation
Stairway to Excellence
Maria Da Graça Carvalho
MEP, Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats), European Parliament
E
uropean research and innovation policy
aims to promote European excellence
in science whilst stimulating industrial
performance.
These goals simply cannot be achieved
without scaling up the environment in which
research is conducted to at least a European
level. Consolidating a common research area
involves enabling as much cooperation as
possible – at a European, national and regional
level – so that structural capacities are enhanced,
research networks are extended and individuals
and ideas are able to circulate more freely.
Horizon 2020 – the new, European framework
programme for the period from 2014 to 2020 – is
the single largest funding instrument of its type
in the world. In general terms, the programme
aims to meet the goals defined above as this
involves building a sustainable economy based
on knowledge and innovation across the whole
Union.
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If the programme will equip Europe to deal
with a number of major challenges – such as the
ageing of the population, the fight against climate
change or the security of energy supply – an
adequately funded research programme is also
essential to ensuring future prosperity. A central
goal, in this respect, is that of improving Europe’s
research and innovation performance.
Excellence – without geographical constraints
– is the primary criterion for participation in
Horizon 2020. Against this background, a significant innovation is the creation of “stairways
to excellence” concept. This involves teaming
initiatives whose objective is to establish and
reinforce partnerships between regional research
units, countries and leading international
counterparts.
This will enable Europe to foster units of
embryonic excellence, such as small research
groups and highly innovative start-ups. Such
stairways to excellence will be able to lever
support from the Cohesion Funds and this will
contribute significantly to the creation of critical
mass from existing seeding grounds.
More generally, with regard to how widening
excellence will be fostered, six initiatives stand
out. These are:
- the teaming of excellent research institutions
and low performing RDI regions with the aim
of creating new (or of significantly upgrading
existing) centres of excellence in low performing
RDI Member States and regions;
- the twinning of research institutions in order to
significantly strengthen a given field of research in
an emerging institution through links with at least
two other leading institutions at an international
level;
- establishing ‘ERA Chairs’ to attract outstanding
academics to institutions with a clear potential
for research excellence, in order to help these
institutions fully unlock this potential and, hence,
create a level playing field for research and
innovation in the European Research Area. In
this respect, a number of possible synergies with
ERC activities should be explored;
- a Policy Support Facility (PSF) to improve the
design, implementation and evaluation of national
or regional research and innovation policies;
- supporting access to international networks for
excellent researchers and innovators who, at the
moment, lack sufficient involvement in European
and international networks;
- strengthening the administrative and operational
capacity of transnational networks of National
Contact Points, including through training, so
that they are able to better provide support to
potential participants.
In parallel with these measures, it is also
necessary to ensure greater complementarity
between Horizon 2020 and various European,
national and regional financial instruments. In
particular, we require a multi-fund approach and
a strengthening of the bridges that link Horizon
2020 and other, available funds and most
particularly the structural funds.
In this respect, the structural funds have a
complementary role to play with regard to what
Horizon 2020 seeks to achieve. Upstream from
Horizon 2020, the structural funds can be used
for capacity building. Downstream from Horizon
2020, the structural funds will help smooth the
passage from conception to market.
These measures, designed to widen
participation, and the successful implementation
of a multi-fund approach will certainly contribute
to maximize European potential to produce
science and technology of excellent standards.

23. Innovation at the Centre of Economic Activity for Entreprises
Daniel Calleja
Director General of the DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission
I
f enterprises are the driving engine of European
economy, then innovation is their fuel, the key
ingredient that propels them forward. Those
who do not innovate and do not keep up with
technological developments will gradually lose
market share and eventually risk going out of
business.
The European Union possesses extraordinary
potential for innovation. European researchers
are world leaders in many sectors and file many
cutting edge patents, but our record in translating
scientific leadership into industrial advantage
has not always been so good. Lithium batteries
provide a clear example: European firms hold
more than 30 per cent of the relevant patents, but
no Lithium batteries are produced in the EU.
Innovation efforts remain patchy and unevenly
spread across the EU. The latest European
Commission’s annual innovation scoreboard
reveals a widening gap between the most
innovative countries (such as Sweden, Germany
and Denmark) and those lagging behind. This
clearly illustrates how the economic crisis has
negatively impacted innovation activity in some
parts of Europe.
As Europeans, we can do more and we can
do better. Investment in innovation is more
crucial than ever if we want to maintain our global
competitiveness and restore growth in Europe.
Without innovation we will not achieve our goal of
raising industry’s contribution to GDP to 20 % in
2020, a target we have set in our new strategy on
industrial policy. This makes it increasingly urgent
to coordinate innovation policies at the European
level.
Innovation should become a common goal
for all EU Member States, through coordinated
national efforts. To make this happen, the
Commission has launched plans for a genuine
Innovation Union and proposed a common
strategy to promote investment in specific
innovative sectors, the ones that drive innovation
in the wider EU economy.
The Horizon 2020 programme will give SMEs
new opportunities to innovate. They will be
able to take part in research actions and there
will be dedicated support for SME innovation.
Compared to previous framework programmes
for research and development, Horizon 2020 will
be much more accessible for SMEs – we have
taken on board the experience of more than thirty
years of these programmes in order to lighten the
administrative burden for SME participation.
If we want to continue being globally
competitive – and it is important to emphasise
this – we have to focus above all on quality and
not just the quantity. This is why we emphasise
providing support to European low- and
drivers of innovation and the green economy. The
global market for KETs is forecast to increase
by over 50 per cent by 2015 (from € 646 billion
to over € 1 trillion), equivalent to around 8 per
cent of the EU’s GDP. Yet manufacturing linked
to KETs is continuing to fall in Europe. We must
reverse this trend and in doing so we can no
longer think along national lines – our response
must be European. So we have been working on
concentrating our efforts and coordinating our
policies and measures to produce a European
response.
Finally, we must make sure we produce
a climate that encourages innovation. As
regulators we can set policy goals which provide
opportunities for enterprises to bring innovative
products to the market, as we have for example
in the field of energy efficiency. This is also a
medium-tech SMEs, who develop innovative
products that are usually the results of decades
of small improvements on existing technologies.
Europe sits on a technological goldmine, being
one of the most technology-advanced and
technology-dominated regions of the world. Little
additional efforts can yield enormous results,
building on our huge technological capital.
One area we are focusing on in our efforts is
Key Enabling Technologies (KETs). They are the
technological building blocks that will be used
to construct any new technology or innovative
high-tech product in the next few years – the true
part of our 2020 Entrepreneurship Action Plan,
developing new channels to encourage more
Europeans to become entrepreneurs. In addition,
we must help open the doors to new markets
for entrepreneurs with world class products.
We have been doing this through Missions for
Growth which have already seen European
businesses promoted in China, Brazil, the United
States and several other countries. Furthermore,
we must ensure that innovative SMEs can access
the finance needed to develop products and bring
them to the market. From 2014, the new COSME
programme will be doing just that.
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