Funding for research projects tackling clearly defined challenges, which can lead to the development of new knowledge or a new technology.

Who? Consortia of partners from different countries, industry and academia.

Funding rate: 100% of eligible costs.

Funding is more focused on closer-to-the-market activities. For example, prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, scaling-up etc. if they aim at producing new or improved products or services.

Who? Consortia of partners from different countries, industry and academia.

Funding rate: 70% of eligible costs (except for non-profit legal entities, where a rate of 100% applies).

Funding covers the coordination and networking of research and innovation projects, programmes and policies. Funding for research and innovation per se is covered elsewhere.

Who? Single entities or consortia of partners from different countries, industry and academia.

Funding rate: 100% of eligible costs.

ERC Starting Grant - support up-and-coming research leaders who are about to establish a proper research team and to start conducting independent research in Europe. Scheme will support the creation of excellent new research teams. For researchers of any nationality with 2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD (or equivalent degree) and scientific track record showing great promise.

ERC Consolidator Grant - support researchers at the stage at which they are consolidating their own independent research team or programme. Scheme will strengthen independent and excellent new individual research teams recently created. For researchers of any nationality with 7-12 years of experience since completion of PhD (or equivalent) and scientific track record showing great promise.

ERC Advanced Grant - for exceptional established research leaders of any nationality and any age to pursue ground-breaking, high-risk projects that open new directions in their respective research fields or other domains. The ERC Advanced Grant funding targets researchers who hav e already established themselves as independent research leaders in their own right.

ERC Proof of Concept Grant - open to researchers who have already been awarded an ERC grant. ERC grant holders can apply for this additional funding to establish the innovation potential of ideas arising from their ERC-funded frontier research projects.

Funding rate: 100% of eligible costs.

This instrument is aimed at highly innovative SMEs with the ambition to develop their growth potential.

It offers lump sums for feasibility studies, grants for an innovation project’s main phase (demonstration, prototyping, testing, application development, etc.), and the commercialisation phase is supported indirectly through facilitated access to debt and equity financial instruments.

Who? Only SMEs can participate. Either a single SME or a consortium of SMEs established in an EU or Associated Country.

Funding started in 2015 as a pilot action. Continuously open, innovator-driven calls will target innovation projects addressing any technology or societal challenge field. The pilot action will undergo an in-depth assessment half-way through Horizon 2020.

Who? Industry, including SMEs, with a minimum of 3 and maximum of 5 partners.

Funding rate: A maximum EU contribution of €3 million per project.

Supports public-public partnerships, including joint programming initiatives between Member States, in their preparation, establishment of networking structures, implementation of joint activities as well as Union topping-up of a trans-national call for proposals. It is based on the merger of the former ERA-NET and ERA-NET Plus actions. It allows for programme collaboration in any part of the entire research-innovation cycle.

The main and compulsory activity of the ERA-NET Cofund is the implementation of the co-funded joint call for proposals to fund trans-national research and innovation projects. The EU contribution is limited to max. 33% of the total eligible costs of the action.

Who can apply? Participants in ERA-NET Co-fund actions must be research funders: legal entities owning or managing public research and innovation programmes.

Funding rate: varies (joint funding from the EU and national governments, industry or other bodies).

Funding for international research fellowships in the public or private sector, research training, staff exchanges.

Who? Early stage researchers or experienced researchers (of any nationality), technical staff, national/regional research mobility programmes.

Funding rate: 100% of eligible costs

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (MSCA IF)

• European Fellowships
• Global Fellowships

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN)

• European Training Networks
• European Industrial Doctorates
• European Joint Doctorates

Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE)

• Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE)
• Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes (COFUND)

Enables the public sector as a technologically demanding buyer to encourage research and development of breakthrough solutions that can bring radical quality and efficiency improvements in areas of public interest.

PCP actions aim to encourage public procurement of research, development and validation of new solutions that can bring significant quality and efficiency improvements in areas of public interest, whilst opening market opportunities for industry and researchers active in Europe.

Reinforces early deployment of innovative solutions that address challenges of public interest. The aim is to enable transnational groups of procurers to share the risks of acting as early adopters of innovative solutions and to overcome the fragmentation of demand for innovative solutions in Europe.

The objective of PPI actions is to enable groups of procurers to share the risks of acting as early adopters of innovative solutions, whilst opening market opportunities for industry.