European Horizon Research Articles

British Science Facing a Double Whammy

With possible spending cuts and a failure to negotiate membership of the Horizon Europe programme where’s UK science?

Використання міжнародних грантових програм Horizon 2020 та Horizon Europe в цифровій економіці

The work reveals the status and prospects of using international grant programs of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe in the digital economy cluster. It is shown that despite the existence of a large number of international grant projects, in particular within the framework programs of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, the problem of increasing the number of participants from among Ukrainian scientists and scientific teams in these projects remains open. It is shown that there is a gap between the Ukrainian scientific and technical community and the world in the field of obtaining funding for grant projects. The analysis of the features of the use of international framework programs of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe in the digital economy cluster was carried out. In particular, a detailed analysis of the supported grant projects in the Horizon 2020 program was carried out with the participation of Ukrainian scientific teams and the role of Ukraine as a project coordinator. The specifics of the topic and the choice of the cluster of funded grant projects were studied. In particular, in the field of digitalization, the research was conducted in the context of such clusters as H2020-EU.2/H2020-EU.2.1 and H2020-EU.2.3.1, which accounted for 12.8% of all funded grant projects within the eighth framework program of Horizon 2020. As for the Horizon Europe program, the research was conducted under all grant projects in which Ukraine participated, including the Euratom program. The budget of the cluster programs in the field of digitalization, which are most in demand by Ukrainian scientists, was also analyzed, the priority areas of providing grants in the ninth framework program of Horizon Europe were determined, and the main key factors of supporting grant projects in the framework program of Horizon 2020 were identified. It is shown that the European Commission, when choosing competitive projects, gives Ukrainian teams more chances to receive funding for a grant project if it is related to the goals of the European Union.

The gendering of energy household labour

Gender considerations, such as the division of household labour and the coordination of everyday household practices, are important for the energy transition of households. Household labour involves everyday practices (e.g. cooking, laundry and caring for others) and practices of energy household labour (<em>e.g</em>. managing digital technologies and energy systems). Emerging smart energy technologies require energy flexibility and efficiency, thereby introducing new forms of household labour can have implications for the household which are not well understood. Through a literature review and some empirical insights from a European Horizon 2020 project, mental aspects of energy household labour are identified: practices of coordination and multitasking, remembering and anticipating, and powerful emotional labour which shapes the practices. Smart technologies and energy systems add more physical and mental labour to households due to the need for additional coordination and change of practices. This additional demand for coordination can exacerbate existing gender inequalities in the division of household labour: technological strategies and designs need to engage with this and reduce new burdens. Considerations for future research are proposed and a gender-sensitive framework for understanding the transition of energy household labour is outlined. <em><strong>Practice relevance</strong></em> Despite the balancing of more stereotypical gender roles in everyday life at home, the mental load of household labour still overburdens women. Technology design and strategies for its domestication need to recognise this load and adopt more gender-sensitive ways of supporting the mental aspects of household labour performed for the organisation of home and provide appropriate digital literacy opportunities for those who use them, without undermining their contribution in the process. Technology-assisted support for the mental aspects of household labour should allow for better negotiations and distribution of household labour required for a successful energy transition, without at the same time adding extra work for both men and women. The initial empirical insights call for a gender-sensitive framework for investigating the emerging practices that this involves, for the energy transition of households.

A Bibliometric Analysis of the Scientific Outcomes of European Projects on the Digital Transformation of SMEs

The projects funded under the European Horizon 2020 program have responded to the challenges facing small enterprises and have provided a framework for different actors (e.g., universities, R&amp;D centers, SMEs) to collaborate and find innovative approaches to address the challenges of digital transformation. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of the scientific production supported by this project, between 2014 and 2021, evaluating 114 projects, which have associated 2312 scientific production items and 1460 deliverables. The results demonstrate that scientific production is mostly carried out collaboratively with project partners and is mainly published in peer-reviewed journals. The research demonstrates that resources, such as Horizon 2020, provide a useful adjunct to other databases as a basis for bibliometric and related analyses.

Uncommon Commons? Creative Commons Licencing in Horizon 2020 Data Management Plans

As policies, good practices and mandates on research data management evolve, more emphasis has been put on the licencing of data, which allows potential re-users to quickly identify what they can do with the data in question. In this paper I analyse a pre-existing collection of 840 Horizon 2020 public data management plans (DMPs) to determine which ones mention creative commons licences and among those who do, which licences are being used. &#x0D; I find that 36% of DMPs mention creative commons and among those a number of different approaches towards licencing exist (overall policy per project, licencing decisions per dataset, licencing decisions per partner, licensing decision per data format, licensing decision per perceived stakeholder interest), often clad in rather vague language with CC licences being “recommended” or “suggested”. Some DMPs also “kick the can further down the road” by mentioning that “a” CC licence will be used, but not which one. However, among those DMPs that do mention specific CC licences, a clear favourite emerges: the CC-BY licence, which accounts for half of the total mentioning of a specific licence. &#x0D; The fact that 64% of DMPs did not mention creative commons at all is an indication for the need for further training and awareness raising on data management in general and licencing in particular in Horizon Europe. For those DMPs that do mention specific licences, 60% would be compliant with Horizon Europe requirements (CC-BY or CC0). However, it should be carefully monitored whether content similar to the 40% that is currently licenced with non- Horizon Europe compliant licences will in the future move to CC-BY or CC0 or whether such content will simply be kept fully closed by projects (by invoking the “as open as possible, as close as necessary” principle), which would be an unintended and potentially damaging consequence of the policy.

The policy of open access to the results of scientific research projects, enforced in research and development contracts: the experience of European countries, the USA and its possible implementation in Ukrainе

The article analyzes experience of the EU and the USA in implementing the open access policy to the results of scientific researches. There are determined approaches to the formation of a policy of open access during joint projects with the participation of scientific research institutions and Universities, as well as its implementation into the provisions of contracts on research and development, available in Europe and the United States; also, recommendations for implementation of the open access policy in the provisions of contracts for conducting R&amp;D with the participation of Ukrainian scientists are proposed.Statement of the problem: Ukraine, following the countries of Europe and America, is actively implementing the “Open Science” policy, which consists of 3 main elements: open access to publications, open data, and open discussion of the scientific research process and its results. At the same time, a whole list of issues related, in particular, to the functioning of open access to scientific publications and other materials containing the results of scientific research (the absence of an appropriate open access policy in scientific institutions and Universities, legally undefined status of free access licenses according to Ukrainian legislation, etc.). Another issue arises, related to open access to the results of scientific research and development: namely, the appropriate consolidation of the mechanisms of open access to such results of joint international or interdepartmental (interinstitutional) projects in research contracts (hereinafter – Research and Development Contracts (DR Agreements)). The article examines existing open access mechanisms used by scientists and researchers in European countries, mechanisms established at the EU level in the Framework Program for Scientific Research “Horizon Europe”, and also examines the experience of the USA (the level of federal institutions and the practice of universities). Recommendations are offered on setting out an open access policy when concluding DR contracts with Ukrainian and foreign partners.Results of the analysis of scientific publications. The study of the foreign practice of implementing open science, and, in particular, the policy of open access to scientific publications is quite active in Ukraine, but it is of interest to specialists, mainly, as an example for the implementation of such a policy in their research institutes, scientific publishing houses, higher educational institutions. Accordingly, the vast majority of domestic publications on this subject contain the exposition of the open access policy of institutions in Europe and the USA, as well as the definition of such policy in international documents (Didenko Y., Egorov I., ), some publications are devoted to a certain criticism of the process of implementing open access in Ukraine (articles by Yaroshenko T., Haustov V., Hryga V., Ryzhenko Yu.). At the same time, attention is paid to the only aspect – the successive steps of fulfilling the conditions of free access to scientific publications. Other significant aspects of the implementation of free access, namely, the combination of requirements for open access to the results of scientific research and their patent protection, and the legal consolidation of the open access policy of scientific institutions in contracts for conducting scientific research and development with partners and customers have not been clarified by the Ukrainian legal scholars (although certain works in this field have been published and related to the use of Creative Commons open access licenses when using scientific journals, book editions placed in the electronic environment by leading publishing houses (articles by Y.M. Kapitsa, K.S. Shahbazyan), the issue of copyright protection and detection of plagiarism (publications by V. Trotska, K. Shahbazyan, O. Sobin, O. Golikova, O. Samelyuk).

Christian Patermann and The Bioeconomy: A Testimony on his 80th Anniversary: Important next steps for speeding up and unlocking the full potential of a circular biobased economy

Europe is at the forefront of developing a circular biobased economy, having moved swiftly ahead in the period 2014–2021, backed by the industry-led public private partnership programme, EU BBI-JU (Biobased Industry Joint Undertaking; 3.7 billion Euro). In the EU, the success of BBI-JU provided the foundation for a new vision of a circular biobased Europe, CBE, with a dedicated industry-led public/private biobased research funding programme, becoming a significant effort in the Horizon Europe (2021–2027) common research and innovation programme. In this paper, in the spirit of Christian Patermann, focus will be on describing the important next steps we should take now, with an impatient sense of urgency, to further develop the circular biobased economy, locally and globally for a more sustainable world. Next Steps: Avoiding new pitfalls in developing the circular biobased economy. Moving on from a few demo- and flagship biorefineries to entire EU biobased sectors. Health promoting biobased biorefinery products, integrating mirobiome research opportunities in the CBE. Building international collaboration within circular biobased economy. Developing many types of biorefinery business models. A CBE-conducive framework conditions, policies, incentive structures and regulatory. In conclusion, circular biobased technologies can open for reduced emissions and improved food security and nutrition; achieved by making healthy food from the biomass, which was hitherto downgraded to bulk products or waste. It is imperative and urgent to have economic calculations made of such a business model; incl figures for CO2 emission potential of upgrading, underexploited biomass to healthy food; and we need figures for the societal benefits from improved public health achieved by implementing new dietary recommendations, by climate friendly and health promoting products made from upgrading biomass.

U.K.-Based Geoscientists Trapped in European Funding Impasse

Political disputes threaten the United Kingdom’s status in Horizon Europe, the world’s largest transnational funding program.

Michelin introduces WhiteCycle, a European consortium to recycle plastic waste, featuring Carbios's biological recycling

The WhiteCycle project, coordinated by Michelin, was launched on Friday, July 1. It aims to develop a circular economy to convert complex waste containing textile made of plastic into products with high added value. Co-financed by the Horizon Europe program of the European Commission, this reportedly unprecedented public/private European partnership includes 17 organizations.

What are the conditions to become smart?

Smart cities (SCs) became a key mission in the European Union’s biggest research programme (Horizon Europe). The urban transition to smartness, making smart decisions and strengthening capabilities for resilience are appreciating today, with such external shocks as the COVID-19 pandemic. Finding the way to become smart is more important than ever. Since literature is mostly engaged with excellent cases, in this paper we analyse the SC strategy of a less-well-performing city: Budapest in Hungary, Central Eastern Europe, using a case-study methodology. We reveal that in the case of Budapest the SC strategy uses a top-down approach that overweighs the deployment of technological solutions to manage urban sustainability issues rather than using a bottom-up and holistic approach. The framework conditions for implementing the SC strategy are rather neglected. In the case of the model for cooperation, Budapest adopts a double-helix model rather than a triple- or quadruple-helix model.

AVRUPA’DA REKABETÇİ SÜRDÜRÜLEBİLİRLİĞİN POLİTİK ARACI: UFUK AVRUPA PROGRAMI

This paper presents a critical analysis on Europe’s new growth strategy. It argues that the new growth strategy blends competitiveness and its economic growth targets, with the limits of natural resources and environmental sustainability. It critically inquires the consistency between growth, profitability, productivity and efficiency, and environmental sustainability. On this basis, the paper questions the possibility of the mutual existence of competitiveness and sustainability. It analyses the mechanisms promoted for competitive sustainability – European Green Deal, European Semester, and Recovery and Resilience Facility. The paper argues that Europe utilises its research strategies to put competitive sustainability on a realist ground. It claims that, with its scientific and technological priorities, Horizon Europe Programme serves as a political tool for competitive sustainability in Europe.

Biodiversity Informatics: A success story for the long-term financial sustainability of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)

The European Open Science Cloud's (EOSC) ambition to provide European researchers, innovators, companies, and citizens with a federated and open multi-disciplinary environment where they can publish, find and reuse data, tools and services for research, innovation, and educational purposes. To enable this, EOSC promotes the use of the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) principles. The EOSC Sustainability Working Group under the EOSC Secretariat published the FAIR Lady Report (European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, 2020), formulating recommendations for sustainability in the form of a Minimal Viable EOSC (MVE) including criteria for its sustainable implementation, formed by three essential components: EOSC Core, containing the minimum set of components necessary to provide researchers with the means to discover, share, access and reuse data and services; ESOC Exchange, a marketplace built on top of the EOSC Core to extend the set of public and private providers, and EOSC Data federation. EOSC Core, containing the minimum set of components necessary to provide researchers with the means to discover, share, access and reuse data and services; ESOC Exchange, a marketplace built on top of the EOSC Core to extend the set of public and private providers, and EOSC Data federation. The EOSC Association was established in July 2020 as the legal entity to govern EOSC. The Association appointed several Advisory Groups to provide recommendations towards the implementation of EOSC, including two Task Forces on Long Term Data Preservation and on the Financial Sustainability for Sustaining EOSC. This presentation will focus on the Financial Sustainability Task Force. The Task Force formed three "Working Streams" following the recommendation of the FAIR Lady Report to tackle the EOSC Core, Exchange, and Data Federation in smaller groups. Within the Data Federation Working Stream, the experts have identified many thematic data federations that have exisisted for quite some time, notably in environmental sciences, biodiversity, and social sciences. The case of Biodiversity Informatics is presented here as one of these sucess stories, retracing the history of major data federations such as GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), the CoL (Catalogue of Life), BHL (Biodiversity Hertiage Library) and how they managed to move from community-driven initiatitves to structurally funded research infrastructures supported by national and international governmental authorities with a long term perspective, leading to the establishment of infrastructures like the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) and LifeWatch. This presentation will also address the essential contributions of associations like TDWG (Biodiversity Information Standards) and CETAF (Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities) to achieving long-term sustainability and on how to successfully obtain complementary funds from EU projects in Horizon 2020 and its successor, Horizon Europe, with programs such as Synthesis of Systematic Resources (SYNTHESYS), DiSSCo Prepare, Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCiKL), and Transforming European Taxonomy through Training, Research, and Innovations (TETTRIs), to name a few.

Anti-transparency within the EU shift to open science

Abstract In 2014, the European Commission initiated a process to strengthen science 2.0 as a core research policy concept. However, this turned into a substantial ideational shift. The concept of science 2.0 was dropped. Instead, open science became established as one of the three pillars of the €94 billion research framework programme Horizon Europe. This article scrutinises the official narrative regarding the shift of concepts, identifying transparency issues, specifically misrepresentation of concepts and data, and the redaction of key material. This can be characterised as problems of input legitimacy. A public consultation did take place, but numerous transparency issues can be found. From science 2.0 to open science, the ideational shift was portrayed as simply a matter of exchanging two synonymous concepts. However, science 2.0 is a descriptive concept referring to science being transformed by digitalisation. In contrast, open science involves normative assumptions about how science should work and be governed.

The small launch vehicle survey a 2021 update (The rockets are flying)

The 2010′s has seen a dramatic increase in potential small launch vehicle contenders, defined as rockets capable of carrying at most 1000 kg to Low Earth Orbit. Spurred on by government programs such as the European Horizon 2020 or the American DARPA Launch Challenge, and the rapid proliferation of CubeSats and nanosatellites, more than 100 different commercial, semi-commercial, and government entities worldwide are now working on new entrants of this class. To date the most successful small launcher, the Northrop Grumman Pegasus has launched 45 times, but its flight rate has dropped to less than one a year. At the same time launch opportunities on ESPA rings, secondary slots on larger launchers, and CubeSat missions as cargo to the International Space Station have proliferated. Despite this seemingly bleak market environment, new entrants have emerged looking for a new magic formula. Others are new commercial entries from unexpected markets such as China. All are inspired by the success of SpaceX and the desire to capitalize on the perceived demand caused by the mega constellations. This paper presents an overview of the small satellite launch systems under development today. Capabilities, stated performance goals, cost, and funding sources are compared where available. This paper is a yearly update of a paper originally presented at the 2015 Conference on Small Satellites (Frick and Niederstrasser, 2015) and subsequently at the 2016 International Astronautical Congresses (Frick and Niederstrasser, 2016). We also review the growing number of entrants that have dropped out since we first started this report. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors discovered fifteen new systems under development and one system became operational in the past 12 months. Two other systems attempted their first flight in 2021 but were unsuccessful. The author welcomes any comments, feedback, or corrections.

Latest developments in cybersecurity management in Romania. Financing a condition for market evolution

Abstract Cybersecurity has become one of the foundations for the development and protection of the economy and of its digital component. It has evolved gradually from a new science into a cross branch inside the modern society, maintaining a niche characteristic and raising the need for allocation of numerous resources at industry, country and international level. Romania, similar to other states has witnessed the development of the ICT industry and of all the other services associated with it, with a particular focus on the cybersecurity. This was accompanied by some actions put in place by the public authorities and private players to guarantee the strategic importance of the sector: legislative update, launch of several initiatives and projects, introduction and enlargement of curricula in universities, collaboration with other specialized institutions, education of the population, creation of institutional framework, public-private partnership. Such a growing demand of this market has to be accompanied by a proper financing in order to achieve planned objectives. This editorial will present some of the actions implemented to highlight the constructive approach in the overall transformation undertaken by Romanian organizations and some of the tools available to them to finance future projects. Among the various platforms accessible for financing, European Cybersecurity Competence Centre and Network and Horizon Europe could function as sources for market evolution.

Novel additions to EIC funding for 2022

The European Innovation Council (EIC) was launched as part of Horizon Europe in March 2021 in order to identify and support novel technologies and innovations. In February 2022 the European Commission (EC) adopted the EIC's 2022 work programme, which provides funding opportunities and boasts new features compared to last year's programme. These new opportunities include increased funding for breakthrough innovators with a focus on creating new markets, a scale up initiative for deep tech companies and extra emphasis on support for women innovators. Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: 'The work programme for this year is backed by the biggest ever annual funding for visionary entrepreneurs and researchers, as well as new measures to support female innovators and scale-ups.' Indeed the funding available for 2022 for start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is €1.16 billion, and more than €480 million is available for transnational research collaborations. This funding is organised into three categories: categories: the EIC Pathfinder, the EIC Transition and the EIC Accelerator. The EIC Pathfinder supports visionary thinking around innovative new technologies while the EIC Transition supports innovations in and beyond the lab and the EIC Accelerator supports SMEs, with a focus on startups. In addition to financial support, the businesses receive expertise and assistance with scaling up their innovations. New to the 2022 work programme is an expansion of the definition of women-led companies. Another component of the extra support to female innovators is the development of an innovation gender and diversity index to identify gaps and stimulate diversity within companies.

From “Set Plan” to “Horizon Europe”

This article outlines the evolutionary framework of disciplinary scientific research and its development in defining the Smart City concept and the main evaluation criteria of smartness and smart urbanism in Europe. Starting with the timeline of the three definitions of smartness, the study analyses the EU development programs and highlights the innovation introduced by European policies across three European programs: a) SET-Plan (2000-2006); b) Seventh Framework Program, FP7 (2007-2013); c) Horizon 2020 (2014-2020), tackles comparatively the implication of smart cities in European countries in term of policies and how to assess the smartness in these cities. The research concludes with some reflection about the role of the ‘Smart city’ paradigm in the next seventh-year program 2021-2027, and his contribution to building a theoretical basis to implement a 'smart urbanism’ concept and its applications in urban planning tools.

Between Participatory Approaches and Politics, Promoting Social Innovation in Smart Cities: Building a Hum–Animal Smart City in Lucca

In recent decades, the interest in social innovation and nature-based solutions has spread in scientific articles, and they are increasingly deployed for cities’ strategic planning. In this scenario, participatory approaches become pivotal to engaging the population and stakeholders in the decision-making process. In this paper, we reflect on the first year’s results and the strengths and weaknesses—of the participatory activities realized in Lucca to co-design and co-deploy a smart city based on human–animal relationships in the framework of the European project Horizon 2020 (IN-HABIT). Human–animal bonds, as nature-based solutions, are scientifically and practically underestimated. Data were collected on the activities organized to implement a public–private–people partnership in co-designing infrastructural solutions (so-called Animal Lines) and soft nature-based solutions to be implemented in the city. Stakeholders actively engaged in mutual discussions with great enthusiasm, and the emergent ideas (the need to improve people’s knowledge of animals and develop a map showing pet-friendly services and places and the need for integration to create innovative pet services) were copious and different while showing many connections among the various points of view. At the same time, a deeper reflection on the relationships among the participatory activities and institutionally integrated arrangements also emerged.

Bioplastics in the Sea: Rapid In-Vitro Evaluation of Degradability and Persistence at Natural Temperatures

The progressive substitution of petroleum-based polymers, such as polyethylene, polyvinylchloride, or polyethylene terephtalate, by so-called bioplastics facilitated the development and production of many new materials. The continuously refined properties of bioplastic compounds and their blends enable various applications. With growing production and utilization of bioplastic products, these materials are increasingly discarded into the environment. Although many of these materials are labeled biodegradable, there is limited information about their degradability under environmental conditions. We tested the enzymatic degradability of five bioplastic compounds with the rapid pH-Stat titration assay at environmentally relevant seawater temperatures between 5 and 30°C and pH 8.2. These plastics, issued from the European Horizon 2020 Project ´Bioplastics Europe´, are based on polylactic acid (PLA), polybutylene succinate (PBS), and poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV). Suspensions of microparticles (&amp;lt; 200 µm) were incubated with each of the three hydrolytic enzymes, protease, lipase, and esterase. A PLA-based compound blended with polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) showed the highest hydrolysis rate of 30 nmol·min-1 when incubated with lipase at 30°C. All other materials showed low hydrolysis rates of less than 10 nmol·min-1. Below 20°C, hydrolysis almost ceased. Plate clearing assays with the same enzymes at 37°C and pH 5 and pH 8, respectively, largely confirmed the results of the pH-Stat titration assays. Our findings indicate that there is a potential degradation of most of the materials with at least one of these hydrolytic enzymes. Nonetheless, the rate of enzymatic degradation under environmentally relevant conditions is low, which indicates only a marginal degradability of bioplastics in the marine environment.

Supporting Agri-Food SMEs in Italy in the Post-COVID-19 Context: From Horizon 2020 to Horizon Europe

In recent decades, European policy has targeted specific measures towards SMEs. The recently concluded Horizon 2020 Programme, under the Europe 2020 Strategy, has provided economic support to stimulate competitiveness and boost the economy of member states by focusing on innovation. The SME Instrument, through a structure of multiple calls, constituted the vehicle for SMEs to access the funds made available by the European Union with disruptive innovation proposals. The initial structure of the SME Instrument, developed in phases and along the lines of the US Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Programme, was afterwards simplified in the design of its successor, the EIC Accelerator Pilot. The success of the above mentioned economic instruments led the European institutions to develop a new instrument, the EIC Accelerator, supported by the current Horizon Europe programme. After outlining the main features of this transition and the novelties introduced, this paper aims to ascertain the extent to which SMEs in the agri-food sector in Italy have had the ability and opportunity to intercept funds by measuring participation in the SME Instrument. Furthermore, it intends to verify which type of firms in the agri-food sector, divided into agricultural and industrial enterprises, intercepted more of the examined funds, and which organisational phase, productive or commercial, the enterprises have been oriented towards, also giving relevancy to the specific objects of the winning projects.