Horizon Europe newsletter

The National Support Network team took over the Liffey Suite at The Convention Centre Dublin last week for our in-person Horizon Europe Impact Conference which aimed to highlight Ireland’s success in Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe and to learn from experts in the area. Irish organisations have been awarded more than €836 million in funding under Horizon Europe to date. Read more on the latest stats and figures here.

Delegates included industry and academic leaders and senior figures from the European Commission like former European Commissioner Mairead McGuiness, Henriette Van Eijl, Deputy Director for Health and Societal Transitions, European Commission, Champion of Horizon Francesco Pilla, and Luke O’Neill, Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity College Dublin.

The day was an opportunity to showcase some of the great success stories from Ireland and to hear from a variety of seasoned Horizon participants, including Tony McEnroe from SiriusXT who was interviewed on RTÉ's Morning Ireland - you can listen back to his story here.

In our conference video report, former European Commissioner Mairead McGuiness describes Horizon Europe as "the biggest pot of research funding across so many different collaborators in the world" while Brian Quinn of Ubotica credits the Horizon programme as the origin of the company - watch the video here.

€12m in ERC Consolidator grants for six researchers
Congratulations to the five researchers from University College Dublin and one researcher from University College Cork who were among the recipients of Consolidator grants announced last week by the European Research Council (ERC). You can read about the winners and their research projects in Silicon Republic's article here.

The President of the ERC, Professor Maria Leptin, has called for increased investment in blue sky research in Europe describing the lack of budget as a "waste of talent".

STONE-WORK - A hotline to practices of the past
We profiled three Ireland-led projects at the Horizon Europe Impact Conference last week. One of those was STONE-WORK, an ERC-funded project led by Professor Christine Casey which is a new way of looking at architectural production, focusing on the communities involved in sourcing and producing materials for buildings. Scroll down to view the video of this very interesting project highlighting conservation as "a hotline to the practices of the past" which will inform the standards of the future.

National Support Network updates

We have a new colleague! Based in Enterprise Ireland, Daniela Angione joins the National Support Network team as a National Delegate and a National Contact Point (NCP) for European Innovation Council (EIC) and European Innovation Ecosystem (EIE).

Daniela previously worked as a Head of Funding and Innovation for an Irish SME and comes with 10 years of experience as Principal Lead of R&D and Research Commercialisation projects in Trinity College Dublin and at The University of Manchester.

In this month's newsletter, National Delegate Michael Murphy shares the main points from his Horizon Europe Impact Conference afternoon session "Anticipating FP10: Navigating Tech Sovereignty & Civ-Mil Duality".

National Delegate Yvonne Halpin writes about Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - "why we need them and what they can do for you". And, as we come to the end of the year, Cluster 6 NCP Darragh O'Neill takes the opportunity to look back at 2024 as well as a look forward to 2025. You'll find these articles further below.

Beannachtaí an tSéasúir

Michael Murphy, National Delegate and National Contact Point (NCP) for Horizon Europe Cluster 3 - Civil Security for Society, Enterprise Ireland

"Anticipating FP10: Navigating Tech Sovereignty & Civ-Mil Duality" was the topic for Michael's recent Afternoon Session at the Horizon Europe Impact Conference. The session was well attended with a robust Q&A session.

In this report, Michael shares the main points from his presentation which addressed global economic and security trends, focusing on their impact on Horizon Europe and other EU programmes such as the European Defence Fund and Digital Europe Programme.

Yvonne Halpin, National Delegate and National Contact Point (NCP) for Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), Irish Universities Association

Ireland has established itself as a leader in leveraging MSCA funding. In the past decade alone, Ireland has drawn down almost €300 million through the MSCA, making it one of the more successful programmes for Ireland in EU funding.

In this article, Yvonne looks at the origin of the MSCA, why they are important and how they can be of benefit to you.

Darragh O’Neill, National Contact Point (NCP) for Cluster 6 - Environment, Environmental Protection Agency

The main calls in Cluster 6 in 2024 closed in February with 128 proposals submitted involving an Irish partner. 24 of those proposals worth a total of €15.9M were funded.

Before next year’s Cluster 6 calls are announced, there is still an open funding opportunity as part of the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. Get all of the details in Darragh's report here.