Research partnerships between
the EU, the private sector and Member States today presented their first
calls for projects and partners under Horizon 2020, the EU's €80
billion research and innovation programme. Worth a total of €1.13
billion in public funding, which will be complemented by a comparable amount from the private partners,
the first round of funding will go into projects that will improve
people's lives as well as boost international competitiveness of
Europe's industry. Topics include new treatments for diabetes and eye
disease and a roll out of dozens of hydrogen-powered road vehicles and refuelling stations (see MEMO/14/468).
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, said: "Only
if the best brains from academia, industry, SMEs, research institutes
and other organisations come together can we successfully tackle the
huge challenges that we are facing. This is what public-private
partnerships are about, the joining of forces to make the lives of
Europeans better, create jobs and boost our competitiveness. We are
committed to prioritising the impact of the European budget on the
recovery, and these partnerships are doing just that, with first calls
for proposals for 1,1 billion euros to be matched by industry, within a
package representing an overall 22 billion euros boost to growth and
jobs creation over seven years. They will continue delivering results
that no single country, company or even the European Union as such would
achieve alone."
The launch of first calls comes
almost exactly one year after the European Commission put forward the
Innovation Investment Package, a set of proposals to establish seven
public-private and four public-public partnerships (see IP/13/668).
They will work in several key areas such as medicines, transport,
electronics and bioeconomy, and are worth over €22 billion in total. The
proposals have been adopted by the European Parliament (see STATEMENT/14/128) as well as Council of the EU (see STATEMENT/14/149).
On behalf of the seven partnerships, CEOs, COOs and CTOs of the private partners involved said: "Joint
Undertakings have demonstrated the success of the public-private
partnership model. They have already achieved results that help improve
quality of life and contribute to Europe’s competitiveness. We are proud
to be part of these new partnerships under Horizon 2020, and are happy
to see them launched just one year after they were proposed by the
Commission. Now it is time to get down to business and produce even more
results that will contribute to growth, jobs and a better quality of
life."...
At a launch event in Brussels
today, the private partners were represented by: Roch Doliveux, CEO of
UCB, Henri Winand, CEO of Intelligent Energy, Jean-Paul Herteman,
Chairman and CEO of the Safran Group, Peder Holk Nielsen, CEO of
Novozymes, Jean-Marc Chery, Chief Operating Officer of
STMicroelectronics, Jochen Eickholt, CEO of Divison Rail Systems,
Siemens AG, Infrastructure & Cities Sector, and Massimo Garbini, CEO
of ENAV.
Background
The seven public-private
partnerships launched today represent a total investment of €19.5
billion into research and innovation over the next seven years, where
the EU contribution of €7.3 billion will unlock a
€12.2 billion investment from the private sector and the Member States.
Together with four more public-public partnerships with Member States,
they form the Innovation Investment Package representing more than a €22 billion investment into Europe's future.
These partnerships work in a number of key fields:
The competitive calls launched
by these partnerships are open to the participation of companies, SMEs,
universities, research organisations and others. The best projects will
be selected for funding through peer review.
