And the Winner Is...

News has come through on the wires from our Brussels correspondent: the EC has announced the winner of the 'Name FP8' competition. Hurray! Get ready with the party poppers, but don't touch the twiglets and low alcohol cava til I say.

As I'm sure you remember, the EC was looking for a snappier title for the new, all encompassing Framework Programme. Something that summed up the brave new world of funding. Something aspirational and forward looking, European and twenty-first century. Something better than the 'Common Strategic Framework for Research and Innovation.' They selected three suggestions from the general public, and put these to a vote.

I can now announce the winner. In reverse order:

• 'Discover 2020', with 2478 votes;
• 'Imagine 2020', with 2785 votes;
• 'Horizon 2020', with 3055 votes.

And I therefore declare 'Horizon 2020' the new FP8. The full and official name will apparently be 'the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation'. Now call me an old cynic, but if that's the full name I bet it will get shortened to 'the Framework Programme' rather than 'Horizon 2020'. But we'll see. I wish it all the best, and hope it has more luck than it's close namesake, Deepwater Horizon. Or indeed the Talbot Horizon. Or the crew of 'Event Horizon.'

Hmm. Not an auspicious group. Is it too late to change my vote to 'Monster Raving Loony 2020'?

Interestingly, it turns out that there is already a European initiative called 'Horizon 2020'. Ah, only in Europe. A zillion Euro budget, an army of bureaucrats, some of the greatest minds in the Western world, and they still don't know what's going on down the corridor.