Horizon Europe newsletter

Horizon Europe - October update

Horizon Europe National Support Network annual meeting
For the first time in almost three years, the Horizon Europe National Support Network team met face to face in Athlone, Co. Westmeath for our annual gathering of National Contact Points (NCPs), National Delegates and stakeholders. Facilitated by Joe Healy, Interim R&I Divisional Manager at Enterprise Ireland, the two-day event included interactive sessions and discussion with representatives from third level research offices, as well as the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Visiting delegations
As well as meeting on a national basis, members of the network team also hosted visiting delegations from Turkey and Estonia in October to demonstrate how we work together to deliver Ireland's national targets.

Ireland's strong performance in Horizon Europe's EIC and MSCA
Building on Ireland's success in the 2022 European Innovation Council (EIC) programme, ATXA Therapeutics, Peregrine Technologies and Ostoform Limited were among the Irish companies to be approved funding in the latest EIC Accelerator round. 75 companies from 21 European countries were selected by panels of experienced investors and entrepreneurs to receive over €396 million in funding. Leo Clancy, CEO, Enterprise Ireland described Ireland's EIC success as "...testament to the capability and talent within the Irish research and innovation system."

The EIC announcement followed the news earlier this month that Irish research organisations have received €34m in funding from the EU to support early-career researchers across the country through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.

Financial Supports - simplified process
New updates to Enterprise Ireland's Horizon Europe supports have also been announced - the process for applying for Travel, Coordinator Support and ERC Support grants has been simplified and approval times are also expected to be reduced. The supports are available to researchers in academic institutions to help them prepare applications for Horizon Europe funding.

New case studies
A "human-centric" approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the next generation of Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries are the subjects of our newly published stories on projects which received Horizon 2020 funding. TU Dublin's CISC and UL's Si-DRIVE projects are covered in our Autumn case studies series.

Latest updates from National Contact Points (NCPs)

This month's contributors are Philip Cheasty, NCP for Cluster 5 - Energy, Fiona Grant, National Contact Point for Cluster 6 - Natural Resources and NCP for Ocean and Waters Mission and David Flood, National Project Coordinator of the EUREKA programme - read their latest updates further below.

Contact us
If you wish to get in touch, a newly published directory listing all of our National Support Network team members is now available here. We would be delighted to hear from you!

Philip Cheasty, National Contact Point for Horizon Europe Cluster 5 - Energy and National Representative for Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking

With the official launch of the 2023/2024 work programmes due at the end of November, the EC is running info days for Cluster 5 Climate, Energy, Mobility on 15-16 December (likely to be a virtual event).

A separate pitching and brokerage session organised by the National Contact Points (NCPs) will take place in the afternoon of 15 December. The brokerage session will provide future project partners the opportunity to network, through dedicated meetings organised by sector.

LIFE programme (EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action)
The LIFE programme includes the Clean Energy Transition (CET) sub-programme and has a budget of nearly €1 billion. It aims to facilitate the transition towards an energy-efficient, renewable energy-based, climate-neutral and resilient economy by funding coordination and support actions (Other Action Grants) across Europe. These are actions of high EU added-value, which are targeted at breaking market barriers that hamper the socio-economic transition to sustainable energy, and typically engage multiple small and medium-sized stakeholders, multiple actors including local and regional public authorities and non-profit organisations, as well as consumers.

The current LIFE CET call closes on 16 November and has 18 topics covering 5 areas of intervention.

Hydrogen
The EC’s focus on Hydrogen development is through the Clean Hydrogen Partnership with an objective to contribute to the EU Green Deal and Hydrogen Strategy through optimised funding of R&I activities. The Clean Hydrogen Partnership is the successor of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (FCH 2 JU).

The 2022 call is closed and there will be further calls in 2023 with funding increased due to Russia’s war in Ukraine. To keep up to date, join the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance (europa.eu).

We are expecting Ireland’s Hydrogen strategy to be presented a part of the Climate Action plan 2023 due out before the end of the year.

Fiona Grant, National Contact Point for Horizon Europe Cluster 6 - Natural Resources and NCP for Ocean and Waters Mission

A recently published review of the marine success in Horizon 2020 showed overall awards of €91.5m and 147 projects with Irish partners. We are off to a very strong start in Horizon Europe with 24 new marine projects and a total EC contribution of €22m. Get in touch to discuss upcoming marine and maritime-related R&I opportunities in Cluster 6, and also in the Mission to Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030.

New projects include PREP4BLUE (Preparing the Research & Innovation Core for Mission Ocean, Seas & Waters) with Erinn Innovation, Galway Atlantaquaria and researchers in the MaREI Centre in UCC. There are a number of Cluster 6 seaweed focused projects including SeaMark - Seaweed based market applications, University of Galway; and CIRCALGAE - CIRCular valorisation of industrial ALGAE waste streams into high-value products to foster future sustainable blue biorefineries in Europe, where the Irish partner is Teagasc.

Two MSCA projects have also been awarded for ASPIRE - Accelerated Seaweed Production for Innovative and Robust seaweed aquaculture in Europe; and SEACHEM - training a new generation of researchers in offshore seaweed aquaculture to produce high-value chemicals. NUIG are partners in both, with two Irish SMEs also successful – Mungo Murphy's Seaweed Co and Bantry Marine Research Station.

MaREI, the SFI Centre for Energy, Climate, and Marine Research at UCC, will coordinate the MarineSABRES project - Marine Systems Approaches for Biodiversity Resilience and Ecosystem Sustainability. The project will bring together an international consortium of 22 partners across 11 countries and will receive €9.8m in funding from Horizon Europe.

Congratulations to Konree Innovation which was selected by the EU for the 2021 Women TechEU scheme. The Game Changer project is about Game Changing Deep-Tech removing barriers to farmed salmon production growth for climate and planet-friendly low carbon footprint animal protein.

The Horizon Europe Cluster 6 Information Days will be held virtually from 13-14 December followed by a Brokerage event. The registration page will be available on 14 November. News and updates will also be shared on social media via #CL6INFODAY @EUgreenresearch and @EUScienceInnov.

David Flood, National Project Coordinator of the EUREKA programme and COST National Coordinator

EUREKA is the world’s biggest public network for international cooperation in R&D and innovation. Founded in 1985, EUREKA now counts almost 50 countries in its membership. The organisation has developed a sophisticated framework to bring together SMEs, large companies, universities, and research performing organisations (RPOs) to collaborate on highly innovative R&D projects.

Advantages to participants include:

Development of new R&D and business relationships
Development of new products, processes and services
Increased sales, exports & employment
Combined expertise & exchange of knowledge
Enhanced resources and capabilities
Reduced risks

EUREKA operates on a ‘bottom-up’ approach, meaning that all areas of technical and scientific innovation are eligible for consideration. The project consortium must be led by an ‘Innovative SME’ and include at least two separate legal entities from two separate EUREKA member countries. Once this criterion is met, then the consortium can grow to include others. Commercialisation of results should be achievable within 3-5 years.

Projects can be submitted through EUREKA’s on-line portal to a variety of calls under EUREKA’s flagship programme EUROSTARS and thematic programmes in Eureka CLUSTERS. Typical projects include 3-4 partners from 2-3 countries, last a maximum of 36 months and have a budget of €3-4M.

EUREKA collects and evaluates all eligible proposals. Those that reach a threshold of excellence in technical and commercial potential are awarded a ‘label’. The average success rate per call is 30%, which is higher than most comparable international programmes. EUREKA does not directly fund projects so each partner can either fund its part in the project in full or, if eligible, seek support from a national funding agency.

In Ireland, clients of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Údarás can access funding through national support programmes. Universities and RPOs can also become eligible for support through Enterprise Ireland’s International Research Fund. Note that Universities and RPOs in Ireland only become eligible for support alongside a company partner based in Ireland.

Please contact me for further information on all aspects of EUREKA’s programmes.

Smart machines are here and they’re changing how the world works. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes ever more embedded in business and society, the EU has declared the need for a ‘human-centric’ approach to AI.

In other words, we need to figure out how humans can best interact and collaborate with machines, both practically and in a more overarching way.

TU Dublin is leading CISC (Collaborative Intelligence for Safety Critical systems), which is a Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions Innovative Training Network funded to the tune of €3.6m by the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. It's a four-year project, involving 13 other partners from higher education and industry in Ireland, Austria, Denmark, Italy and Serbia, including multinationals such as Iveco and Pilz.

The drive to Net Zero and the need for all of us to help reduce emissions means that electric vehicles (EVs) must become completely commonplace.

The rate of EV uptake, however, needs to improve and for that to happen, EV batteries have to be cheaper, recharge faster and enable vehicles to go further without needing to be charged.

One Irish-led consortium is hoping to make that happen, with its innovative re-imagination of the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery. The Si-DRIVE* group is developing the next generation of rechargeable Li-ion batteries in a four-year project funded to the tune of €8m by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 programme.

EIC Accelerator success for ATXA Therapeutics, Peregrine Technologies and Ostoform

Three Enterprise Ireland-backed companies were approved €24.3m in the latest EIC Accelerator. More than 1000 organisations submitted applications of which 75 companies from 21 European countries were selected for funding.

Commenting on the announcement, ATXA Therapeutic’s Founder and CEO Professor Therese Kinsella said, “We are honoured to accept this prestigious EIC award endorsing us as a disruptive, deep-tech, innovative technology within the wider EC community."

You can read the coverage in the Irish Times, RTÉ and Silicon Republic.

Horizon Europe - more Ireland news stories:

EU study to examine the rise of gender-critical politics - Silicon Republic
Collaboration Nation: How Irish scientists are breaking through on a global level - Irish Times
MTU joins EU project to boost Ireland's bioeconomy - Silicon Republic
New €19.6m project led by Irish company is set to transform wave energy industry - techbuzzireland
Maynooth Uni's €2.5m education project to support transition to renewable energy - IrishTechNews
Irish researchers to lead €9m metaverse XR project aimed at media sector - Silicon Republic

Events in November 2022:

Thu 10 Nov, EU Brokerage Event on Industrial KET* in Horizon Europe, Strasbourg. More info here
Mon 14 - Thu 17 Nov, Transport Research Arena 2022, Lisbon. Discover more here
Mon 14 - Fri 18 Nov, EU Raw Materials Week 2022, Brussels. Details here
Thu 17 Nov, Patent Protection for EU Funding Beneficiaries - Biotechnology. Webinar registration here
Thu 24 - Fri 25 Nov, Restore our ocean and waters by 2030: An Atlantic-arctic lighthouse, Cork. More here
Mon 21 - Tue 22 Nov, SFI Summit 2022 - hybrid event. Visit the website here.
Tue 22 Nov, EIC Greenhouse Gas Programme Green Venture Capital Day. Details here
Wed 30 Nov, Avoiding errors in declaring personnel costs in Horizon 2020 grants. Webinar details here