Association Nationale de Recherche et Technologie
ANRT
L’ANRT est le réseau intersectoriel public-privé de la recherche française.
ID: 876200047018-91
Lobbying Activity
Response to Interim evaluation of Horizon Europe
28 Jul 2022
The Working Group on ERA of ANRT (Association Nationale de le Recherche et de la Technologie), composed of 42 publics and private organisations active in the FP since 2000, welcomes the opportunity to provide feedbacks on the Horizon Europe programme.
The Working Group has really appreciated the new approach for the Model Grant Agreement (Corporate MGA); the new template’s structure (especially for avoiding repetitions) and the webinars set up by the EC (very useful, allowing researchers to have a first level of information).
However we would like to use this opportunity to put forward a set of recommendations concerning the proposal preparation, the proposal evaluation and the programme’s implementation.
Proposal preparation:
- The topics complexity has increased in Horizon Europe. The calls on missions are more complex than the others.
- The call deadlines are announced too late, and they are too close to the opening, making the preparation more difficult for both the researchers and the support staff.
- The attention to scientific aspects in the proposals template seems to have decreased, especially with a reduced number of pages.
- Some clarifications are needed on certain aspects such as: “Do not significant harm” principle, gender in excellence, Open Science/evaluation criteria.
- Impact section: clearer but harder to write for researchers. It can be complex to estimate the scale and significance of the project’s contribution to the expected outcomes and impacts.
- In the Horizon Europe WP a large number of topics are Innovation Actions.
- Frequent technical problems with the F&T portal (e.g.: difficulties to add affiliated entities in the proposal, …) and some new impractical features (e.g.: not possible to change the order of partners in the list of participants).
- Guides and documents are published slowly and late (after the call publication). A year and a half after Horizon Europe launch (some projects have already started) the AMGA is not yet entirely published.
- Webinars organised by the EC (informative and brokerage events) are often scheduled within a short period of time.
Proposals evaluation
- “Right to react”: the implementation of this tool needs to be improved.
Programme’s implementation:
- Delay in the association agreements negotiations (notably with the UK) may affect the composition of consortia (eligibility versus non-eligibility) and it may challenge the submission or the implementation of certain projects.
- Consortia are larger and the partnerships are more complex. It is more difficult coordinating projects.
- In the project’s implementation it is necessary to consider the “COVID 19 effect” on how teams work.
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