On September 23rd the Portuguese Agency for Innovation (ANI) in collaboration with the CMU Portugal Program, hosted the online Info session “Horizon Europe – Funding Opportunities for R&D and Innovation” for the CMU Portugal community. The session counted more than 100 participants, ranging from Academia to Industry interested in knowing more about the Horizon 2020 opportunities.
One of Horizon Europe’s (HE) main objectives is to increase the innovation of European companies and facilitate the transformation of knowledge produced in Europe into competitive advantages, translated into social and economic impact. In the case of Portugal, there is a challenge in this most recent European framework program to increase national participation with a particular focus on the companies, also aiming to double the number of participations by national companies.
To achieve this goal, ANI promoted this session to guide the CMU Portugal community through the available initiatives related to the Program’s focus areas. Marta Pinto and João Ribau, both Horizon 2020 National Contact Points, led the session. They shared with the audience strategies for widening and strengthening participation in the Horizon 2020 Program.
Marta Ribau presentation “Funding opportunities for collaborative R&D projects”, introduced the overall mission of Horizon Europe and its focus areas. She then led the audience through the multiple funding instruments with a focus on Digital, Industry and Space (Cluster 4) and Health (Cluster 1), pointing out the available opportunities to fund R&D&I projects.
Under Pilar III, João Ribau shared guidelines to take ideas to market , guiding participants through the available Calls and funding opportunities explaining all about the EIC Pathfinder Program that supports the exploration of bold ideas for radically new technologies. Applicants participating in EIC Pathfinder projects are typically visionary scientists and entrepreneurial researchers from universities, research organizations, start-ups, high-tech SMEs or industry stakeholders interested in technological research and innovation.
