Work begins on next R&D framework programme
Work is under way at the Commission to prepare the successor to Horizon 2020, Robert-Jan Smits has said.
A public consultation on the ninth EU research and development programme will be launched this autumn, the research director general told his audience at the Science|Business Horizon 2020 conference.
He added that a proposal “will be on the table by the end of 2017, beginning of 2018”.
Prior to the public consultation, which will seek input from academics and industry on the research the EU should fund from 2021 onwards, a “foresight exercise” will be launched to establish the societal challenges the new programme should focus on, Smits explained.
“We have commissioned a couple of think tanks to help us, and we’re already seeing topics emerge [which are] not in Horizon 2020,” he said.
This new approach to drawing up a research programme was suggested by renowned Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot, who helped discover the Ebola virus.
