Horizon 2020 Day LuxembouRG

Linking national projects to European funding opportunities in 2017
Horizon 2020 Day Luxembourg, which was organised by Luxinnovation with the support of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR), took place in the Maison du Savoir in Esch-Belval on 20 October 2016. It was aimed at informing Luxembourg based researchers and companies about European funding opportunities for their research focused or innovative projects.
The event was not only a starting point for newcomers to European research and innovation projects, but it also gave an insight into recent trends on what is needed to succeed in the competitive bidding process for EU funding. With over 100 registered delegates, the event also provided the Luxembourg research and innovation community with an occasion to network.
Event programme
Innovation initiatives launched in Luxembourg in recent years match European priorities in many crucial domains. “The plenary session presented national projects and priorities and showed how these are mirrored in European funding opportunities under Horizon 2020,” said Benjamin Questier, Head of European Funding at Luxinnovation. In addition, four guest speakers from Luxembourg presented their project work and shared their experience of Horizon 2020.
Five parallel sessions presented 2017 funding opportunities under five headings: Smart Cities and Mobility; Fintech and IoT; High Performance Computing (HPC) and Industry 4.0; Training Networks and Individual Projects; and SMEs.
A second round of parallel sessions offered advice on proposal writing for beginners (‘Horizon 2020: back to basics’) and experienced bidders (‘New little known facts for a winning proposal’).
Highlight on 2017 opportunities
In 2017, €8.5 billion will be allocated to projects selected through open and competitive calls for proposals. Major funding opportunities will be provided in the fields of ‘Industry in the Circular Economy’ (€325 million), ‘Smart and Sustainable Cities’ (€115 million), ‘Technologies and Standards for Automatic Driving’ (over €50 million) and the ‘Internet of Things’ (€37 million).
About Horizon 2020
Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, funds collaborative or individual projects in research and innovation. Research organisations, universities, companies and non-profit organisations are all eligible to participate. Launched in 2014, Horizon 2020 has funded well over 10,000 projects to date.
The framework programme runs from 2014 to 2020, with a total budget of €77 billion. Horizon 2020 also funds the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) and the European Research Council (ERC).
Since 2014, Luxembourg entities have won over 156 projects and benefitted from around €50.53 million of Horizon 2020 funding (as at 30 September 2016).
Luxinnovation’s role in Horizon 2020
Part of Luxinnovation’s mandate is to act as national contact point (NCP) for the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and provide advisory services to applicants in Luxembourg.
In this role, the Agency helps applicants to match their ideas with funding opportunities under Horizon 2020 or to expand project ideas to fit European calls for proposals. Further support includes partner search and critical reviews of project proposals. Luxinnovation is present in various policy committees related to Horizon 2020.
Since 2016, Luxinnovation also coordinates LuxCor, the Luxembourg Contact Office for Research in Brussels. The Luxembourg NCP informs via its website, newsletter and social media, and by organising in-house or open trainings, info sessions, and events.
Further information
Horizon 2020 participant portal
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/home.html
Horizon 2020 open calls on the Luxembourg Innovation Portal
http://www.innovation.public.lu/en/financer/excellence-scientifique/horizon2020/index.html
Luxembourg website on Horizon 2020
http://www.horizon2020.lu/
European Commission News Alert: Commission to invest €8.5 billion in research and innovation in 2017, Brussels, 25 July 2016
http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=newsalert&year=2016&na=na-250716
Highlighting Luxembourg participation in Horizon 2020 projects
Horizon 2020 projects include universities, research organisations, companies and non-profit organisations alike. Four projects (CROSSCULT, BIOTOPE, TOPTEN ACT and NPSCOPE) featuring prominent contributions from Luxembourg-based organisations were presented at the Horizon 2020 Day on 20 October 2016. Project participants shared their experience with the audience in brief presentations during the plenary session.
CrossCult
Empowering reuse of digital cultural heritage in context-aware crosscuts of European history
Started 01 March 2016
Horizon 2020 funding: €3.5 m (70%-100%) | Funding to LU participants: €855,776
Grant agreement number: 693150
Most often history is presented as a collection of unrelated facts linked to single locations. However, to gain a broad and globalized understanding of our history, we need to put facts from various sources in relation to each other in order to fully understand our history. CrossCult wants to broaden our perspective of what happened in the past and connect it to the present, thanks to smart ICT technology.
The project, led by a team at LIST and funded by Horizon 2020, will develop an open platform of interconnected digital cultural resources. Cultural venues including the National Gallery in London, the Archaeological Museum of Tripolis in Greece, Luxembourg City and the city of Valletta are pilot sites for this project.
CVCE, the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe in Luxembourg, which recently joined the University of Luxembourg, is also a partner in CrossCult.
Speaker: Ioanna Lykourentzou, Senior Researcher, CrossCult  coordinator, LIST
More information: Project website http://www.crosscult.eu/, LIST website http://www.list.lu/en/project/crosscult/

bIoTope
Building an IoT OPen innovation Ecosystem for connected smart objects
Started 24 November 2015
Horizon 2020 funding: €7.85 m (100%) | Funding to LU participants: €804,813
Grant agreement number: 688203
The Internet of Things (IoT) is likely to change how we think about services and products. However, obstacles in terms of the information system architecture persist, as platforms and organisational applications are still not interoperable.
The bIoTope project provides standardised open APIs to enable this crucial interoperability, thereby creating open innovation ecosystems where companies can create new software components or platforms for connected smart objects. BIoTope also foresees large-scale pilots in various European (‘smart’) cities.
iTrust consulting Sàrl, a Luxembourg-based research and consulting company in IT security, is also partner in the project.
Speaker: Sylvain Kubler, Research Associate, BIOTOPE principal proposal writer, University of Luxembourg – Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT)
More information: Project website http://www.biotope-h2020.eu/, University website http://wwwen.uni.lu/snt/research/our_research_projects/biotope_building_and_iot_open_innovation_ecosystem_for_connected_smart_objects
npSCOPE
The nanoparticle-scope: a new integrated instrument for accurate and reproducible physico-chemical characterisation of nanoparticles
Started September 2016
Horizon 2020 funding: €6,661,600 m (100%) | Funding to LU participant: €2,331,283
Grant agreement number: 720964
Nanoparticles exist in their original form, or appear incorporated into complex matrices, such as biological tissue. The npSCOPE project will develop a new instrument called nano-particle-scope thanks to electron and ion microscopy. The instrument will be able to provide a full characterisation of nanoparticles, including their physical and chemical attributes.
This technology will have various uses. For example, it can help to identify the toxicity of nanoparticles contained in food and absorbed by the human body through breathing or through the skin. The nano-particle-scope will also be useful in the semiconductor and battery industry, in life sciences, or any other area where nano-particles need to be analysed.
Speaker: Tom Wirtz, Group leader, Advanced Instrumentation for Ion Nano-Analytics (AINA) group, NPSCOPE project coordinator, LIST
More information: LIST website http://www.list.lu/en/news/list-expands-its-european-footprint/