'Factories of the Future' Will Continue Under 'Horizon 2020'

BRUSSELS - 30 November, The European Commission has published its proposal for Horizon 2020 the new framework programme that will replace framework programme seven (FP-7). The 600 page document presents in detail, the Commission’s plans for its support of European research, development and innovation for the period 2014 to 2020.

Reflecting its success under FP-7, the ‘Factories of the Future’ public-private partnership (PPP) will continue under Horizon 2020. The public-private partnership model has been recognised as a successful implementation mechanism and will now have legal status. It is expected that more PPPs will be created in the near future.

Horizon 2020 is divided into three ‘pillars’ –

• Pillar 1: Excellence in the science base.

• Pillar 2: Creating industrial leadership and competitive frameworks.

• Pillar 3: Tackling societal challenges.

As an implementation programme that invests in enabling technologies and supports innovation (notably in SME’s), the ‘Factories of the Future’ PPP is located under the second pillar.

The proposed budget for Horizon 2020 is €80 billion with €17.9 billion being allocated to ‘Creating Industrial Leadership'. However the budget for the ‘Factories of the Future’ PPP has not been allocated yet. Considering that in ‘Factories of the Future’, the PPP was funded by both the NMP and the ICT programmes, it is promising to see that for Horizon 2020 the NMP budget will receive €4,3 billion (which is an increase by 23%), while the ICT budget will receive €9 billion Euros. It can therefore be expected that the ‘Factories of the Future’ PPP budget in Horizon 2020 will rise considerably as of the year 2014.

A new aspect of Horizon 2020 will be indicators to assess the impact and progress of initiatives under the programme. For the “Industrial leadership pillar”, the number of patent applications has been chosen to be the indicators, whereas for the PPPs more “Key performance indicators” will be identified.

Regarding the European Institute of Technology (EIT), it was announced that beside the present three KICs (Climate, ICT in Labs and InnoEnergy), further KICs will be launched including one on ‘Added Value Manufacturing’.

The proposal was presented at a press conference in Brussels by the Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Máire Geoghegan Quinn, Commission Vice-President and Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani and the Commissioner for Education, Androulla Vassiliou – reflecting the fact that Horizon 2020 will be an integrated programme and collaborative effort from research programmes to education initiatives.

More information is available on the new Horizon 2020 website while key documents are available here.