Horizon 2020
In 2015, Ukraine became an associate member of the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation. This membership gave Ukrainian participants equal status with their European partners, as well as opened opportunities to influence the formation of the content of the Program.
Horizon 2020 is the largest European Union Framework Program for Science and Innovation Funding with a total budget of around € 80 billion for 2014-2020.
The program focuses on achieving three main objectives:
- to make Europe an attractive place for first-class scientists;
- to promote the development of innovation and competitiveness of European industry and business;
- with the help of science to solve the most pressing issues of modern European society.
In accordance with these tasks, the program "Horizon 2020" is divided into three main areas:
1. Advanced science that is open to high-quality individual and team research projects in all fields of knowledge, including the humanities;
2. Leadership in industries that fund the development of new technologies and materials, including ICT, and space research; in addition, financial instruments for innovation in small and medium-sized businesses are available within this area;
3. Public challenges, with a wide range of research projects: from improving the quality of transport, food, health and safety to European identity and cultural heritage.
Every year, Ukrainian institutions and organizations take an increasingly active part in the Horizon 2020 program. Since 2014 and until now (as of the end of January 2019), Ukrainian participants have received 171 grants worth 29,690,000 euros. The total number of participations of Ukrainian organizations is 238. In total, Ukrainian participants coordinated 22 projects, 4 of which are still being implemented.
The largest funding was raised:
National Aerospace University - 1.84 million euros;
NSC "Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology" - 1.26 million euros;
Polythea Cloud LLC - 1, 22 million euros.
The largest number of projects:
Kyiv National University named after T. Shevchenko - 7;
Union of Geologists of Ukraine - 7;
National Aerospace University - 6.
Participation statistics:
52.2% (87 participations, 15.51 million euros) - medium and small enterprises;
22.6% (59 participations, 6.7 million euros) - research institutions;
17.4% (49 participations, 5.15 million euros) - higher education institutions;
4.2% (22 participations, 1.23 million euros) - other institutions;
3.7% (21 participations, 1.1 million euros) are executive bodies.
Every two years, the European Commission prepares and publishes Work Programs for each area. On 27 October 2017, the European Commission presented a new Horizon 2020 Work Program, covering the 2018, 2019 and 2020 budget years and providing funding of around € 30 billion.
