The FINANCIAL — Over 80 organisations working in the research and innovation field in Ukraine are to receive new funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. Among them are higher education institutions, research organisations and private sector companies.
In total, 505 Ukrainian organisations participated in the preparation of 915 project proposals in the field of scientific and innovation in response to the European Commission’s call for proposals. The 83 organisations that were selected for the first wave of funding through Horizon 2020 are expected to receive around €17.6 million, according to the EU Neighbours portal.
These results put Ukraine in the sixth place among Associated Countries, just after Serbia and Iceland, in terms of the number of participating organisations and contributions from the European Commission
According to the EU, Ukraine has big potential but requires further reforms to create more favourable conditions for the intensification of cooperation between Ukrainian science and industry with partners from the EU and other countries involved in Horizon 2020.
Horizon 2020 is the EU’s biggest ever research and innovation framework programme, with a budget of €77 billion over seven years (2014-2020). The vast majority of this funding will be allocated on the basis of competitive calls which are open to applications from researchers, businesses and other interested organisations located in any of the EU Member States or countries associated to Horizon 2020, including the EU Neighbourhood countries. As of October 2017, Horizon 2020 has in total funded more than 15,000 grants, amounting to €26.65 billion.
Ukraine became a new member of Horizon 2020 Associated Countries (AC) in March 2015. Since then, Ukrainian organisations have been able to fully participate in the programme on equal terms with the EU Member States and other ACs.
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