On Monday 29 January, the European Commission published the report on the final ex-post evaluation of Horizon 2020, the European framework programme for research covering the period 2014-2020.
Over this period, Horizon 2020 funded more than 35,000 research projects and received more than one million funding applications from 177 countries.
In addition, the programme funded projects that have led to the filing of nearly 4,000 patents and trademarks and contributed to more than 276,000 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
The Commission has also highlighted the economic impact of the programme for participating companies: Horizon 2020 contributed to a 20% increase in employment and a 30% increase in turnover and total assets for participating companies.
The Commission estimates that, in the long term, the programme should contribute an average annual increase of €15.9 billion to the EU’s gross domestic product and a total of €429 billion over the period from 2014 to 2040.
In terms of the societal impact of Horizon 2020, the Commission states that 64.4% of the framework programme budget was invested in projects linked to sustainable development.
However, the evaluation report identifies a number of areas for improvement. The first is to broaden the participation of all Member States. This need to broaden participation also applies to women.
Secondly, the evaluators felt that simplification was required, as well as a reduction of the administrative burden for participants.
Communication also needs to be improved, in particular the dissemination, exploitation and deployment of results.
Finally, the evaluation highlighted the need to strengthen synergies with other initiatives at European, national and regional level.
These suggestions will feed into the reflections surrounding the development of the next framework programme.
Link to the evaluation report: https://aeur.eu/f/am5
Link to the Commission staff working document: https://aeur.eu/f/am2 (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)