The budget increase will be used to provide European support for health and climate-related research and innovation activities. The additional budget will go to:
• Horizon Europe’s Health cluster to tackle challenges such as the coronavirus pandemic, the extension of clinical trials, innovative protective measures, virology, vaccines, treatments and diagnostics, and the translation of research findings into public health policy measures.
• Horizon Europe’s Climate Energy and Mobility cluster and the Digital Industry and Space cluster to scale up R&I resources in climate-related domains and to ensure that European enterprises have access to the technologies and data they need. This will strengthen support for the competitiveness of EU industry in related economic sectors and promote a recovery consistent with the European Green Deal’s goals.
• The European Innovation Council (EIC) to provide additional means for emerging and breakthrough innovations by small and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups, and midcaps. The EIC has a huge potential to support the recovery and the EU’s ambitions on digitalisation and climate.

The attached Policy Brief presents the narrative on the role of research and innovation (R&I) in response to the Covid-19 crisis and six priority areas where efforts should focus underpinned by examples. It highlights that R&I are critical to ensure a sustainable and inclusive recovery, while boosting the resilience of our production sectors, the competitiveness of our economies and the transformation of our socio-economic systems.

The six priority areas are:

(1) The role of R&I as essential part of the coordinated EU response to the Covid-19 outbreak;

(2) R&I drive, enable and accelerate the digital and ecological transformation of our societies, with a focus on the European Green Deal;  

(3) In the  context of the current fiscal stance as a response to Covid-19, and in view of potential future crises, public investments in R&I should be prioritised;

(4) Investments in innovative SMEs (including start-ups) and midcaps are critical for the recovery;

(5) Incentives for firms to create capacity to maintain their economic activity and invest in people and in R&I during the crisis to build system wide resilience;

(6) R&I funding has been among the most impactful tools at EU level to tackle the Covid-19 outbreak.

Original source: https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/role-research-and-innovation-europes-recovery-2020-may-29_en