Horizon Europe newsletter

Partners and proposals are not just for Valentine's Day - for Ireland's National Support Network team, finding the perfect partner and creating the perfect proposal are all in a day's work!

So, while the roses are wilting and the chocolate boxes are heading for the recycling bin, February 2023 continues to be an intense and busy month with call deadlines looming in the weeks ahead.

ERC Success
With the seeds sown last year, Spring 2023 is already producing results and Ireland's success under the Horizon Europe programme continues to flourish - eight Ireland-based researchers are among the most recent European Research Council (ERC) awardees bringing Ireland's ERC funding win to €63m. Our ERC National Delegate Maria Nash has all the details.

€1.1m investment in Mayo biotech firm Ovagen

Great news earlier this month for Mayo-based Ovagen which was recently awarded European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator funding of €10 million - the Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) has led a €1.1 million over-subscribed funding round in the company which is the world's first producer of germ-free eggs. We featured the company in a case study in December: "This project may have failed if we hadn't received European funding - it was instrumental," said Catherine Caulfield, CEO, Ovagen. You can read how EU funding helped the company tackle the global vaccine market here.

Updates from our experts
National Contact Point (NCP) Mark Sweeney, Enterprise Ireland, spotlights Cluster 6 and the Missions in this month's newsletter - there are more than 100 topics with deadlines for proposals in March and April for Cluster 6 alone. The Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking is the focus for Enterprise Ireland's Cluster 4 NCP Stephen O'Reilly while Louise Campion, Cluster 5 NCP at Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland outlines the energy-related topics with a €1.2 billion budget in 2023 and 2024.

Common mistakes
The Commission has published a DOs and DON'Ts guide for proposal preparation for Horizon Europe - Common mistakes to avoid when applying for Horizon Europe funding is a must read for all applicants! If you are applying for a lump sum project, you can check out the latest webinar on preparing your proposal with recorded Q&A here.

Missed it?
A hybrid Horizon Europe Coordinators' Day on Grant Agreement Preparation took place earlier this month covering several areas including the funding and tenders portal, fraud prevention and legal and financial issues - the presentations and a video of the livestream are all available here.

New update to Enterprise Ireland Horizon Europe financial supports
As you know, we've recently made a number of tweaks to simplify the application process for Enterprise Ireland financial supports to help academics prepare proposals for Horizon Europe. Grant durations have been increased from 12 months to 24 months on a pilot basis and the most recent update includes the reduction of the time limit for applying for ERC Proposal Support - applications will now be accepted up to four months before the call deadline. Contact horizonsupport@enterprise-ireland.com if you have any questions about this.

National Contact Points on the road

They're not quite Thelma and Louise, but NCPs for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, Yvonne Halpin and Jane Carrigan (pictured), have hit the road - they were in Cork, Galway and Sligo earlier this month where they were hosted by MTU, UCC, University of Galway and ATU for sessions on upcoming MSCA opportunities in Horizon Europe. This week they visited TUS Athlone and will be visiting the other universities, TUs and IoTs in the coming weeks and months - if you don't bump into them at a HEI near you, you'll find them here on Twitter.

All of the National Delegates and NCPs who make up the Horizon Europe National Support Network are here to help - please get in touch for information and advice on upcoming opportunities.

Mark Sweeney, National Contact Point for Cluster 5 - Climate and Cluster 6 - Environment, Enterprise Ireland

In this issue, Mark's focus is on Horizon Europe Cluster 6 activities and he takes a look at Ireland's performance to date in the Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment calls. More than 440 participations with Irish participants have received approximately €53 million in funding under Cluster 6.

Discover more about Cluster 6 opportunities and key events here.

Stephen O'Reilly, National Contact Point for Cluster 4 - Digital, Enterprise Ireland

Launched in 2021, the Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking (KDT JU) programme was originally planned to run for seven years. With the advent of the European Chips Act, KDT is expected to expand and become the Chips Joint Undertaking later this year. KDT represents a European Commission investment of €1.8 billion which is expected to be matched with National funding from the participating states - find out more here.

Louise Campion, National Contact Point for Cluster 5 - Energy, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland

Climate neutrality by 2050 - that's the ambitious goal of Horizon Europe's Cluster 5 programme actitivity. Energy-related topics have a budget of more than €1.2 billion across 2023 and 2024 with the aim of creating a clean and sustainable energy supply, boosting energy efficiency and reducing demand. Louise outlines the topics and deadlines in her latest update.