Horizon Europe Pump Priming Collaboration between UK and EU Partners

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This programme builds on the important awareness-raising and promotional communications that the sector, National Contact Points, the UK Research Office in Brussels, and the Science & Innovation Network have been taking forward by providing pump-priming funding to seed collaborations for applications to specific Horizon Europe calls in Pillar 2.

 

 

Funded by the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

The British Academy (BA), the Science & Innovation Network in Europe (SIN Europe), UKRI and KTN with the support of the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) are inviting proposals from UK and EU/associated countries-based researchers to pump prime collaborations to support the effective uptake of the opportunities UK association to Horizon Europe will provide.

Proposals are welcome in all disciplines – engineering, natural sciences, medical sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

Funding for this call is still available. The deadline for submissions and UK institutional approval is now open for the fifth wave of assessment and will close on 8 December at 17:00 (UK time).

Aims

Horizon Europe is the largest ever EU Framework Programme for research and innovation, with a budget of over €95 billion (2021–2027, excluding contributions from associate countries). Such EU programmes offer significant opportunities to access new knowledge, partners, markets, customers and suppliers.

The aim of the call is to develop collaborative activity between UK and EU/associated countries’ entities in Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe. Applicants will need to identify a specific upcoming call in this Pillar as the focus of their proposed collaboration with the goal of submitting an application to that upcoming call building on this pump priming funding.

The purpose of this call is not to implement the proposed projects that will be submitted to Horizon Europe, but to give the UK-based partners the resources needed to collaborate with EU organisations and stakeholders to further develop the idea and the market opportunities.

The expectation is that the funding will be utilised in a variety of ways but could include feasibility studies, application advice and training, partnership building, and dedicated time to take forward an application.

Eligibility requirements  

Each project will be led by a named Principal Investigator (PI). The PI must be a researcher from an eligible UK-based organisation and must be of postdoctoral or above status (or have equivalent research or innovation experience). The PI’s position must last at least the duration of the grant funded by the Academy. The PI is expected to direct and manage the grant and has responsibility for the overall project reporting requirements.

Proposals are welcome from research institutes and universities based in the UK, and proposals that involve working closely with any other type of organisations eligible for Horizon Europe funding (based in the UK and/or the EU/associated countries), including third parties, end users and similar bodies/organisations such as hospitals, libraries, regulators, commercial partners, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), creative industry partners, museums, local authorities and associations, NGOs, charities and companies are particularly encouraged.

The call is focused solely on Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness.

Applications must identify a call in Pillar 2 that they will specifically target to apply to on the back of this pump priming funding.

Within Pillar 2 the calls that this pump priming funding can be used to target must be calls that open between 1 September 2021 and 31 January 2023. Such calls may target any type of action.

For more details about the programme and the eligibility requirements, please see the scheme notes and FAQs.

Value and duration

We are able to offer awards of up to £10,000. Awards will run until March 2022.

Awards must conclude with an interim final report by 17 March 2022. Awards will be required to provide further reporting on their award, including in relation to the outcome of their application to Horizon Europe.

Funding may be used to support time of the PI and Co-Applicants for concept or proof of market work and proposal development, costs of meetings, travel and subsistence, research assistance (based in the UK or internationally), due diligence work on partners, costs towards child or parent care, and contributions towards support services such as proposal writing.

Application and Assessment Procedure

All applicants must register in the British Academy’s online Flexi-Grant system to enable the processing and assessment of their application. All applications must be submitted in English.

Applicants will be required to complete a short form that will include detailing the following:

The call within Pillar 2 that the application is targeting; An indication of the expected UK participation in the proposed Horizon Europe project (i.e. the extent/scale of involvement the application is looking to see the UK have); The alignment of the application with the proposed targeted call explaining how the application would address the scope and expected outcome specified in the call text; An overview of the work proposed with a clear plan of action, identifying risks and any ethical or legal issues, and a description of the organisations that will be involved in the application and how together they will meet the aims of this call;

 

The call will remain open on a rolling basis until all funding has been utilised.

Further assessment will be undertaken in waves with applications submitted by 12 January 2022, 17.00 (UK time) considered in a sixth wave.

The Academy will announce on its website when the funding has been fully utilised.

  • The deliverable: providing information on the anticipated level of funding that will be sought from Horizon Europe and the work that would be fulfilled if the Horizon Europe bid is successful;
  • The added value of this grant if successful – why additional funding is required for this work and how will it enable the undertaking of this project differently.

 

More information:

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/Horizon-Europe-Pump-Priming-...