Horizon Europe newsletter

As we come to the end of a busy 2022, Ireland now stands officially at €222.7m (2.3%) on the Horizon Europe dashboard.

We've signed 366 grant agreements - that's almost 9% of the Horizon Europe total.

We also know that Ireland has enjoyed further successes in the last few months which are not included in these figures, confirming it has been a fantastic year with very positive results - let's keep the momentum going in 2023!

France and Ireland - strengthening innovation and applied research links
Last week, Enterprise Ireland, University College Dublin and the Embassy of France in Ireland announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing a new International Technical Expert (ETI) role dedicated to strengthening Innovation and Applied Research links between France and Ireland - find more details here.

Ireland wins - EU Prize for Women Innovators 2022

Two inspiring women entrepreneurs from Ireland were winners in the EU Prize for Women Innovators 2022.

Dr Ciara Clancy, founder and CEO of Beats Medical won in the Women Innovators category while Niamh Donnelly, co-founder and CRO of Akara Robotics won in the Rising Innovators category.

The competition celebrates the women responsible for Europe’s most groundbreaking innovations, from tackling climate change to treating the world’s deadliest diseases. Read more below.

Info Days and work programmes
With the 2023-24 work programme formally adopted earlier this month, several Horizon Europe Cluster info days and brokerage events have taken place over the last couple of weeks providing in-depth information on funding opportunities in the 2023 calls. If you missed these, recordings are available and include sessions that we recommend on Lump Sum, International Cooperation and the Blind Evaluation pilot. The brokerage portals run by b2match are open for meetings until March 2023 in many cases.

Events will continue into January covering various destinations within each cluster (see listing further below) and we strongly encourage you to register and attend.

Germ-free eggs and aircraft wings
We have published the final two case studies in our 2022 series of success stories from both Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Thanks to EU funding, Mayo-based Ovagen Group is scaling up production of germ-free eggs for use in vaccines while the challenge of airplane wing assembly has been addressed by a consortium of Irish and European SMEs alongside Airbus with the help of EUREKA funding.

December news from our National Contact Points (NCPs) and National Delegates (NDs)

In this issue, the IUA's Jane Carrigan, NCP for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions gives updates on changes compared to previous work programmes. ND and NCP for Cluster 6 Agriculture, Willie Ryan at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, outlines how Ireland aims to maximise participation in the Soil Mission and Patricia Clarke, ND for Cluster 1 Health at the Health Research Board, looks at notable successes in 'new' areas of the Health Cluster.

New NCP appointment
We are delighted to welcome a new colleague to the Horizon Europe National Support Network - Darragh O'Neill at the Environmental Protection Agency takes over from Alice Wemaere as the new NCP for Cluster 6 - Environment. Thank you to Alice for her wonderful work and support over the years.

Happy Christmas to all!
And finally, from all of us in the Horizon Europe National Support Network, we wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas and all the very best in 2023 - looking forward to working with you again in the new year!

Jane Carrigan, National Contact Point for Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions at Irish Universities Association (IUA)

Under Horizon Europe, Irish organisations have secured an impressive €34 million in MSCA funding to date. The MSCA Work Programme for 2023-2024 has now been published with details and deadlines for MSCA calls including COFUND, Doctoral Networks, Staff Exchanges and Postdoctoral Fellowships.

There have been some changes compared to the previous work programmes. Get the details in Jane's update here.

Willie Ryan, National Delegate and National Contact Point for Cluster 6 - Agriculture at Department of Food, Agriculture and the Marine

Ireland has secured €38m for 67 projects in Cluster 6 in 2022 - this equates to 2.8% of the total Horizon Europe Cluster 6 funding for the year with grants ranging from €300,000 to €2 million.

More than €142 million has been allocated for the 2023-2024 work programme for the "Soil Deal for Europe". Find out how Ireland aims to maximise participation here.