SME Instrument sees budget increase
The most recent update to the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016-2017 has seen the SME Instrument budget increase by €51.6m to €437.5m.
The increase for 2017 relates to four topics: healthcare and biotechnology (€35m); sustainable agriculture and forestry (€5.68m); blue growth (€2.42m); and climate action, environment, raw materials and resource efficiency (€8.5m).
The budget increase comes alongside a number of other changes to the instrument; among them, Phase 1 projects for the healthcare and biotechnology for cell technologies topic will be closed off in 2017. The topic will nonetheless continue for all Phase 1 projects from 2016 and for Phase 2 projects from 2016 and 2017. Projects within the topic will be allowed to last up to 36 months instead of 12-14 months, as is the case with other topics.
In addition, the blue growth call will now include more of a focus on marine litter prevention, while in the security topic, actions to improve cybersecurity will be encouraged to take into account the objectives of the new cybersecurity contractual public private partnership, as well as the corresponding Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.
Other changes include making open research data the default setting for Phase 2 projects, a new feature which is designed to boost competitiveness by accelerating innovation and collaboration, improving transparency and avoiding duplication of efforts. Where research data cannot be open, Phase 2 projects will have the possibility to opt out, and participation will not be taken into account during the evaluation procedure. This measure will not concern Phase 1 projects.
Go here to find out more about the changes to the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2016-2017.
