Horizon 2020 – Community Framework Program for Research & Innovation, with a global budget of over 77 billion euros for the period 2014-2020, is the European Community’s largest instrument specifically geared towards supporting research, through co-financing from research, innovation and demonstration projects. Financial support is granted on the basis of competing competitions and through an independent evaluation process of the proposals submitted.
The H2020 consists of three programmatic pillars with different scopes:
- Pillar I – Scientific Excellence (with around 32% of the total budget);
- Pillar II – Industrial Leadership (corresponding to approximately 22% of the budget);
- Pillar III – Societal Challenges (with approximately 39% of the total budget).
The H2020 also has about 2% of its total budget as a financial contribution to the European Commission’s Joint Research Center.
In addition to these three pillars, there are other instruments that represent a total of about 6% of the H2020 budget.
Additionally, the EURATOM program, aimed at activities in the area of nuclear energy, has a budget, under the H2020, of 2.37 million euros for the period 2014-2020.
