Brussels, 25/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - Updating the priorities of the EU's framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020, for 2017, the European Commission decided on Monday 25 July to make open science apply by default to all future calls for tender.
Open science allows free access to research data and is destined to become the rule in the EU. Member states have already committed national financing for it in the run-up to 2020 (EUROPE 11560). The Commission today wants to take a precursor role by applying open science by default next year for EU financing for research.
To this end, the European Commission made use of its pilot project 'Open Research Data Pilot' that it will extend to all the thematic domains of Horizon 2020 from 2017 onwards. Participants will have to submit Data Management Plans, DPMs, setting out the data that the project will generate, how it will be verified and reused and how it will be preserved. The Commission did, however, include the option of derogations, but requests for a derogation must be justified and may only be made after the assessment procedure for a submitted project.
The 2017 work programme includes €8.5 billion for six priority domains. These were already known, but have been revisited in the light of new challenges. For example, €11 million is foreseen for research into migration, the possibilities of harmonising national legislation and the best policies for integrating immigrants into labour markets. Research into crime and terrorism will get €49 million.
For the two programmes whose popularity is ever growing, the European Commission has foreseen larger financing in the 2017 budget for Horizon 2020. The European Research Council has thus been granted nearly €1.8 billion, which should enable it to provide 1,000 research bursaries. In addition, there will be 10,000 training opportunities under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions, which will have their own budget of €840 million.
The third and biggest financing will go to information technologies and communication (€633 million), followed by research into energy (€526 million), 'transversal' activities (€475 million), innovation by SMEs (€463 million) and access to risk investment (€397 million available through financial instruments rather than calls for tender).
The Commission has also updated its integrity rules. The framework agreement for subsidies has been revised and now explicitly demands that beneficiaries respect basic principles such as honesty, objectivity and impartiality. A new version of the European code of conduct will be unveiled in January 2017, once ALLEA (All European Academies) has finished its work in cooperation with stakeholders. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)