While the new 7-year funding scheme of EU, “Horizon 2020” will continue to fund excellent basic research (17% of the total budget), an effort is being made to attract small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to participate in research consortia. After a two-and-a-half-year negotiation, the European Council and the European Parliament reached an agreement (pending final sign-off) that SMEs will claim a 20% of the total budget  in an act that aims to boost European economy.

Open access publication of results of all research funded under Horizon 2020 will be mandatory and awards will be made within 8 months as opposed to 12 months, which is the current scheme.

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