The forthcoming European Union Research and Innovation programme, Horizon 2020, will be worth €70bn (at constant 2011 prices) over the next 7 years.  You can find out more about Horizon 2020 with the EU's FAQs on Horizon 2020, available by clicking here, or an introduction to Horizon 2020, available by clicking here.

€70bn-worth of opportunity

This is a big opportunity for UK organisations, not only those already engaged in EU-funded activity, but also those with expertise in other sectors adaptable to transport activity, and those who are looking for solutions that may be provided by technologies not currently applied in the transport sector.

What IS the transport industry?

Transport systems are the lifeblood of our economy.  The tendrils of transport systems reach far and wide and encompass many different aspects of industry. Transport-related industry therefore covers not only the obvious supply chain in manufacture and supply of road, rail and marine/maritime vehicles/vessels (aviation too of course!), but a much wider net, encompassing ICT, sensors, earth observation, design, human factors, mobile technologies, smart materials, clean energy, construction, urban design, visualization, gamification, and so on.    There is evidently a lot in “transport” that other less obvious industries could play a significant part in.  In addition to research organisations and academia, there is clearly a place in the transport eco-system for the large OEMs, but there is also vast opportunity for the smaller, more agile, SMEs, with their innovative solutions and fast responses to challenges.

SMEs get special attention – and funding – under Horizon 2020

It is good then, that Horizon 2020 will also introduce a new - simplified - funding mechanism specifically aimed at SMEs, called SBIR.  It aims to fill gaps in funding for early-stage, high-risk research and innovation by SMEs as well as stimulating breakthrough innovations. This will mean that individual companies will be able to apply for funding under their own auspices, as well as participating in major collaborative research and development.  Find out more about the opportunities for SMEs under Horizon 2020, by clicking here, and by watching the live webcast from Brussels on 25th November 2013.

Usual process

With previous EU funding mechanisms such as the Framework Programmes (FP7 was the most recent), the calls for proposals go through a back and forth process of industry input and EU ratification, which includes roadmaps, non-papers and draft Work Programmes before being published in the final work programme.  Unendorsed versions of the interim, draft papers are often available before the final official paper, via various channels (the Knowledge Transfer Networks and the National Contact Points are often in this bracket), so that industry and research organisations can get an indication of the potential final calls.  We indicate some of these below.

What's in it for you?

What follows is a brief synopsis of some of the challenge areas that are in some of the Horizon 2020 draft papers.  As of today, none of the draft papers available has been officially released, and they all come with a health warning.  The caveats are that they are draft, that they are not officially sanctioned, that they may change significantly, that the indicative funding (where given) is only that – indicative etc.  But if you make yourself familiar with them, you will have a good idea of what might be coming and will be in a sronger position to act when the final versions are available.

1. Transport Challenge  (available at https://connect.innovateuk.org/documents/2800720/7771738/Horizon%202020%20for%20Transport%20DRAFT), as well as the usual suspects (road, rail, aviation, waterborne) includes:
   1. Urban mobility
   2. Logistics
   3. Intelligent transport systems
   4. Infrastructure
   5. Socio-economic and behavioural research and forward-looking activities for policy-making
2. LEIT (Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies) NMP (Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, and Advanced Manufacturing and Processing) Work Programme  (see http://www.materialschemistry.org.uk/Documents/NMPB%20early%20draft%20in%20confidence.pdf  for the draft LEIT).  Some areas in this that might be applicable to members of the Transport KTN include:
   1. Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials for low carbon energy technologies and energy efficiency
      1. Innovative materials solutions for storage of energy produced by decentralized sources
      2. ERA-NET on Materials for Energy
      3. Materials innovations for the optimization of cooling in power plants
      4. Extended in-service life of advanced functional materials in energy technologies (capture conversion storage and/or transmission of energy)
3. ICT.   Under the first Horizon 2020 work programme, ICT activities will focus on the integration of advanced networks, of cloud computing with huge data processing capabilities, and of sensing and communicating devices to build smart connected environments to enable new classes of applications with high impact.   Some areas in this that might be applicable to members of the Transport KTN include:
   1. FET (Future and Emerging Technologies)
      1. Emerging High Performance Computing (HPC) workloads
         1. "HPC for Extreme Data workloads" addressing Extreme Data workload characterizations and their impact in processor designs, run-­‐time, OS and programming languages and tools; new methods in data migration and storage; highly dynamic, uncertain and streaming of data of unprecedented sizes and the impact in algorithms and systems; data standards enabling cross-­‐disciplinary data processing and interoperability based on innovative data services (e.g. storage access, indexing, metadata, etc.)
         2. "HPC as an instrument" to achieve special goals that requires dedicated and specialized resources, e.g. catastrophe response, real time and interactive HPC data-­‐ driven use, etc.
         3. "Industrial Usage of HPC as a commodity" addressing the deployment and consumption of HPC solutions and results at a wider scale extending the HPC user base.
      2. Managing, preserving and computing with big research data
      3. e-Infrastructure for open Access
      4. e-Infrastructures for virtual research environments (VRE)
   2. ICT LEIT Programme
      1. Support the growth of ICT innovative creative industries SMEs
      2. Advanced digital gaming/gamification technologies – in non-leisure contexts
      3. Robotics
      4. Micro and nano-technologies, photonics
      5. Manufacturing including Factories of the Future (FoF)
      6. ICT-enabled modeling, simulation, analytics and forecasting technologies
      7. Internet of Things and Platforms for Connected Smart Objects
   3. Societal challenges addressable by ICT
      1. Connectivity for sustainable mobility
      2. Smart connected automation in road transport
      3. Smart connected urban mobility services
      4. Smart cities and communities
      5. ICT for smart logistics
      6. Mobile services for Intelligent Transport Systems
      7. Digital infrastructures for transport and mobility

Some Horizon 2020 Events of interest to Transport KTN community members

Sep 19^th ICT H2020 webinar

24^th Oct Battery Manufacturing 2013 in Warwick, includes H2020 info relevant to transport sectors

8^th Nov H2020 for Rail in London and by concurrent webinar (save yourself the travel time and costs!) includes explanation of the SME funding mechanism (no academic spaces left, sorry). Max 2 people per organisation in person. Draft agenda available here.

4^th Oct – 27^th Nov: Space: 4 regional workshops

·      Belfast on 4 October (back to back with a stakeholder event on the Space Innovation and Growth Strategy)

·      Cardiff on 13 November

·       London on 20 November

·      Glasgow on 27 November

What next?

We will make any further releases of the H2020 Transport draft papers available when we know about them, so follow us on Twitter to find out as soon as we do.

If you have specific questions about Horizon 2020 Transport, please contact Cliff Funnell, who is the National Contact Point in the UK.

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