H2020: Year One Report Card

Horizon 2020, the European Commission’s main programme for distributing research funding across Europe, has now been running for a little over a year, so it seems like a good time to check in on how things are going so far. 

We have already had 79 calls, and researchers across Europe have responded by submitting 25,903 proposals, asking for some €41bn. Around 14.5% of these have been successful (3,765), totalling €6.6bn. That’s around 8.5% of the total H2020 budget of €70bn for the seven year programme.

A 'Cunning Plan' to Lead Million+

Word has just reached Fundermentals Towers that Million+ has taken the brave decision to put Baldrick in charge. Well, not Baldrick so much as the actor Tony Robinson who played the hapless character. What could possibly go wrong?

Any resemblance to Prof Dave Phoenix, VC of London South Bank University, is, of course, entirely coincidental.

Phoenix

Robinson

Success Rates and Scratch Cards

Revealed: the design of the new Je-S form

At the end of last month I wrote a piece on my blog about the success rate of applications submitted to the Economic and Social Research Council in July. Of 144 applications submitted, only 14 awards were made, giving a success rate of 10 per cent.

This is a frightening figure. It suggests that we’re getting to lottery levels of success when applying to the research councils. In fact, the ESRC odds are half those you have on a Health Lottery scratch card, which suggests most universities have got their research funding strategies all wrong.

'I Believe the Children Are Our Future'

EPSRC Scientists getting busy
with 'Adventures in Energy'

'Whitney Houston' and 'cutting edge research agendas' are not concepts that are usually sited side by side. Well, all that could be about to change.

As any Whitney fan will know, she believed that children were our future. Indeed, she suggested that we should teach them well and let them lead the way. Now, funders are beginning to see the gnomic wisdom of her words.

At the end of last month the Scottish Government took its cue from five year olds and issued a research tender for a project asking a key pre-school question: 'how high do birds fly?'