Commission publishes initial results for RI call

The heavy competition for Horizon 2020 funding has been highlighted by the recent flash results for a European Research Infrastructure call.

The European Commission received 60 proposals for the ‘Integrating and opening research infrastructures of European interest’, which comprises the solitary ‘Integrating and opening existing national and regional research infrastructures of European interest’ topic.

47 of the proposals received were considered to have an evaluation score above the applicable threshold, and the total funding requested by all the proposals is nearly €364m; the total available budget for the call is €140m. The call budget draws €90m from the 2014 Horizon 2020 budget and €50m from the 2015 budget. The deadline for project proposals was 2 September 2014 and the final results will be made public soon, with the first grant agreements expected to be signed in April.

The Commission has also announced that it received 15 proposals for the topic ‘Individual implementation and operation of ESFRI projects’, part of the ‘Developing new world-class research infrastructures’ call. The call closed earlier this month and has a budget of €97m; full results will be announced by the Commission soon.