Horizon 2020 Mid Term Evaluation Rates Factories of the Future Positively

The outcome of the recent Horizon 2020 mid-term evaluation has been very positive for the Factories of the Future partnership.

According to the European Commission’s report of the findings of the Horizon 2020 mid-term evaluation, the partnership is most open of the Horizon 2020 public-private partnerships (PPPs). The evaluation found that significant EU funding going to a broad European manufacturing research and innovaiton community – proving once again that the partnership is far from being a “closed club”.

On the SME front, in contrast to the other PPPs, the Factories of the Future partnership attracted the highest number of SMEs (33% higher). The Factories of the Future partnership is also seen as having a broad appeal. Taking the example of digitisation, the partnership attracted the involvement of more SMEs in ICT topics than ICT-centred PPPs.

For Horizon 2020 itself, the evaluation report is largely positive noting that Horizon 2020 has funded 11,000 projects to date and has attracted the participation of project partners from 130 countries. However, it finds that Horizon 2020 is underfunded and therefore unable to meet the level of demand.

Horizon 2020 Mid-Term Evaluation Report | Annex 1 | Annex 2