Over 220 researchers from SMEs, large companies, research organisations and the higher education institutions based in Ireland and across Europe will gather in Dublin today at the Enterprise Ireland and European Enterprise Network ‘Horizon 2020 Brokerage Event on ICT, Advanced Materials and Manufacturing’.
This one-day event will introduce Irish based enterprises and researchers to Horizon 2020, the EU research and innovation programme which provides funding to projects through open and competitive calls for proposals. The conference will also present insights and expectations from the European Commission whilst offering a international networking experience.
Delegates will hear from experts on Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology, Al and Technologies for Digitising European Industry and Economy, Big Data and Cloud Technologies, 5G and the Next Generation Internet. Researchers from Ireland and nine other countries will be in attendance and over 300 meetings have been requested for the brokerage event scheduled as part of the conference.
Ireland has already secured €760 million in funding under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme. €413.3 million of this was secured by the Higher Education Sector and €255.7 million was secured by companies of which €161.3 million was awarded to SMEs.
Furthermore, on 27 June, the European Commission announced grant funding of €149m to 83 European SMEs under the most recent call of the SME instrument under Horizon 2020 to European SMEs.
Following this announcement seven Enterprise Ireland clients will receive funding of over €16m representing over 10% of the total funding awarded under this call for proposals. These new awards will be in addition to this €760m total.
Speaking ahead of the event, National Director for Horizon 2020 at Enterprise Ireland, Garrett Murray said, "It is important we build on this success. To date more than 1,809 applications have been successful with Ireland’s success rate above the EU average. Irish researchers now have an opportunity to make significant progress to the end of Horizon 2020."
He added, "New competitive calls for funding are being issued under the Programme all the time. This event provides an opportunity for Irish researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of upcoming calls under Horizon 2020 and to build collaborative relationships to secure funding and advance their innovation agenda."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
