• H2020
• Industrial Leadership
• ICT

Horizon 2020, which intends to invest €77bn in research and innovation projects between 2014 and 2020, is one of the largest R&D funding programmes in the world.

The scheme accounts for 8% of the EU budget. H2020 aims to create €400bn of socio-economic benefits by 2030, however it is being pressured to show that there is an immediate impact.

Since 2014, the scheme has given more than 15,000 grants, including €45m in research projects to address the Zika virus outbreak, and €5m to develop a heart valve. Currently, around €27bn has been invested.

Pascal Lamy, president emeritus of the Jacques Delors Institute, conducted an interim evaluation this year of H2020 and concluded that the programme was providing value, as well as calling its research council a “beacon of scientific excellence”.

However, the Financial Times suggest that funding is a problem for the programme as H2020 would like to fund more projects than it currently does.

European Parliament supporting the increase of allocation to €129bn after 2020, however it is expected that budgets may come under pressure after Brexit.

Lamy said: “Europe’s innovation deficit does not stem from a lack of ideas or a lack of start-ups. Our problem is the lack of scale-up.

“We have to invest in and promote innovative ideas that can be rapidly scaled up.”

He also called for H2020 to support projects which aim to build the first quantum computer, or raise the cancer cure rate to three in every four. He added that these goals would establish a connection between the public and scientists.

Meanwhile, William Amos, a professor of zoology at Cambridge University, UK, expressed concern in that funds are being directed towards exciting projects at the expense of blue-sky research.

The scheme’s priorities for 2018-2020 were updated last month in order to focus on supporting market-creating innovation.