The European Commission has launched today its first calls for proposals for projects under Horizon 2020, the European Union’s €80 billion research and innovation programme. ‘Health, demographic change and wellbeing’ is the top priority of the ‘societal challenges’ strand of Horizon 2020, with almost 7.5 billion Euros available for the 2014-2020 period.

Today, the calls for 2014 and 2015 health topics have been launched in line with the EC’s 2 year work programme on ‘health, demographic change and wellbeing’. The focus of the next two years is on ‘personalising health and care’, with 34 topics identified under this area. The calls can be found on the following website: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/index.html

In parallel with the launch of Horizon 2020, the NHS European Office has produced a Briefing on “EU funding for research and innovation 2014-2020: seizing the opportunities for NHS organisations” which outlines key areas of Horizon 2020 for the NHS and describes how this programme offers greater potential for NHS organisations to access EU funds than previous funding schemes. It also offers advice on how organizations may go about accessing this funding. For additional information or if you would like to receive additional copies of this publication, please contact: sarah.godman@nhsconfed.org

EU Structural Funds

As a reminder, the deadline for LEPs to complete their strategies to utilise EU Structural Funding is the end of January 2014. If you are looking to access this funding please do speak with your LEP before this date. If you have any queries related to EU Structural Funding please contact: Michael.wood@nhsconfed.org