Further details on NI H2020 released

The Northern Ireland Executive’s Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment has released more details on the role of its Northern Ireland Horizon 2020 manager.

The role was announced in Northern Ireland’s Horizon 2020 Action Plan in February and will be responsible for co-ordinating the NI Horizon 2020 Contact Point (NICP) network to ensure effective delivery of the action plan.

In a presentation to InterTradeIreland, Dr Simon Grattan, who will undertake the new role, outlined to the all-island business organisation the role Horizon 2020 would play in Northern Ireland.

The NICPs will be located in both of the country’s universities, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster. The NICPs will provide assistance with Horizon 2020 funding applications in the health, ICT, engineering, energy and social sciences & humanities sectors in order to help increase Northern Ireland’s participation in the next research and innovation framework programme.

A new network including Invest NI and InterTradeIreland will also be formed to support the work of the NICPs, which will also have close links with other UK and Irish National Contacts Points.

Under FP7, Northern Ireland has benefitted from over €55m of EU funding and involved 200 participants.