Irish Colleges and Companies Secure €251m of EU Science Funding

Government targets €1.25bn of total €75bn Horizon 2020 budget

Nearly 600 science projects run through colleges and companies in Ireland won have won funding worth €251 million from the Horizon 2020 programme, the Minister for Skills, Research & Innovation, Damien English, has announced.

Horizon 2020 is the European Union’s programme for Research and Innovation, and it has granted €157 million of that funding to projects in the higher education system and €72 million to companies based in Ireland, English said.

In the Marie Skłodowska-Curie sub-programme of Horizon 2020, which promotes the training of researchers, Ireland won €18.5 million, equivalent to 35 per cent of the available Marie Skłodowska-Curie budget. That brought Ireland’s total from this sub-programme to €49 million.

According to the Department of Skills, Ireland has a target of winning €1.25 billion of the almost €75 Horizon 2020 for the period 2014 to 2020.

In a statement, English said he was “delighted with this performance to date which clearly shows that Ireland is on track to achieve its ambitious national target of €1.25bn.”

“This success bears testimony to the excellence of research in Ireland, both in our higher education system and in our innovative companies. It shows that our researchers are among the best in the EU”.

The applications for funding for Horizon 2020 are coordinated by Enterprise Ireland, and Imelda Lambkin, National Director for Horizon 2020 at Enterprise Ireland, said “ A key role of Enterprise Ireland is to support the commercialisation of research and the development of innovative businesses. We are proud to lead Ireland’s participation in Horizon 2020 and the €250m in funding secured by Irish researchers and companies under the programme demonstrates the strength and leadership of the people involved.”