The European Commission’s main mechanism for funding research and innovation is Horizon Europe for the period 2021 to 2027, with a budget in excess of €95.5 billion.
(The previous programme, Horizon 2020, started in January 2014 and ran for seven years until the end of December 2020. Horizon 2020 had a budget of nearly €80 billion. Details of the programme can be found at the Horizon 2020 page.)
Acting as a specialist unit within the Research Office, the EU Team provides advice to Imperial to help it maximise its return on available funding opportunities from Horizon Europe. The Team fulfils a core role as the source of specialist analysis and advice for Imperial on Horizon Europe R&I policy, legal, and contractual aspects of EU research & innovation funding and works closely with staff across Imperial - from academic staff, Faculty Research Services, Department operations, Research Office, and other central Imperial administrative teams - to support EU research and innovation funding at Imperial.
The Team acts as the single external liaison for agreements mandated by the grant funding terms or otherwise agreed between the collaborators as advisable to implement the collaboration (pre-Award agreements such as Consortium Agreements.)
As a process efficiency to Imperial Faculties, and to benefit partner relationships in research collaborations, they act as the single Grant Agreement signatory, for grants which have been authorised by Faculties in accordance with Imperial’s policies for the management of research proposals and agreements.
If you have a query on the costing of new applications or the financial management of ongoing projects, please contact your Research Services Team / Joint Research Office.
EU Team Contacts
Andrea Bell - Head of EU Team, primary contact for central Imperial and/or administrative/operations teams in Faculties/Departments/Schools/Centres and other on policy/legal issues across all areas of Horizon Europe
James Lloyd EU Research Funding Specialist, primary advisor for Imperial’s academic research community who are interested in collaborative funding opportunities in health, healthcare, and human health research related areas across Pillar 2 (Cluster 1 and Cluster 6) and Pillar 3
Megan Coombs EU Research Funding Specialist, primary advisor for Imperial’s academic research community who are interested in funding opportunities in ERC and MSCA
Branwen Hide EU Research Funding Specialist, primary advisor for Imperial’s academic research community who are interested in collaborative funding opportunities focusing on digital, industrial, space (Cluster 4) and climate, energy, and mobility (Cluster 5) research areas and related technology opportunities in Cluster 6 and Pillar 3.
For regular updates on the Horizon Europe programme, including information about upcoming information events and call launches, you can also follow the EU Team on Yammer.
Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers
Imperial is dedicated to creating a positive research culture and to providing sector-leading support and professional development to all its researchers. Following our ambition to equip and empower all researchers at Imperial to succeed in their chosen careers, the College became a signatory of the new Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers in March 2020.
The Concordat is an agreement between funders and employers of researchers in the UK. It aims to set the “gold standard of researcher development” by committing funders, institutions, researchers and managers of researchers to create a healthy and supportive research environment and culture for researchers to realise their potential.