News archive - Eurostars in Horizon 2020 speed up funding process
The national agencies managing the funding programme have committed themselves to a 7 months maximum period between the submission of an application for funding and the moment when a grant contract with the public authorities is signed.
For small companies developing innovative technologies, time is of the essence: a one month advantage in a patent race can mean either bankruptcy or millions of euros of benefits. The short procedure leading to a contract on a grant between companies and public funding bodies is essential to the success of Eurostars, the only European funding programme to be specifically dedicated to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) focusing on innovative technologies.
As the Eurostars programme is moving under the Horizon 2020 flagship - the biggest research and innovation framework in the world worth 70 billion euros - the national agencies managing the funding programme have committed themselves to a 7 months maximum period between the submission of an application for funding and the moment when a grant contract with the public authorities is signed.
During framework programme seven, the predecessor to Horizon 2020, the median time delay from application to grant contract was of 10 months. A period of time considered to be too long by most experts, and which length has been reported as being the main criticism addressed to the European Commission by both industrial representatives and national authorities representing the framework programme at local level.
The innovation agencies behind the Eurostars programme and the central Eurostars office in Brussels have so far reduced what is referred to as ‘time-to-grant’ to a median period of time of less than eight months – a 25% improvement since the start of the programme. This seems to indicate that the 7 months mark will be easy to achieve by the authorities managing the programme.
By comparison, for framework programme seven’s projects, the ‘average time-to-grant’ was around 350 days, or 11 and a half months. For Horizon 2020, the European Commission has promised that it will reduce this period by about 100 days, which brings the Commission’s objective for time-to-grant to slightly more than 8 months - a commitment that has been criticized for its lack of ambition by the European Parliament, the EU Institution representing European citizens.
- General/no specific focus
- General
Entry created by Desiree Pecarz on August 27, 2013
Modified on August 27, 2013
