2. COMPLEMENTARITIES, CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND SUPPORT MEASURES

Horizon 2020 is structured around the objectives defined for its three priorities: "Excellent science", "Industrial leadership" and "Societal challenges". Particular attention will be paid to ensuring adequate coordination between these priorities and fully exploiting the synergies generated between all specific objectives to maximise their combined impact on the higher level policy objectives of the Union. The objectives of Horizon 2020 will therefore be addressed through a strong emphasis on finding efficient solutions, going well beyond an approach based simply on traditional scientific and technological disciplines and economic sectors. Cross-cutting actions will be promoted across Part I 'Excellent Science', Part II 'Industrial Leadership', Part III 'Societal Challenges', Part IV 'Spreading excellence and widening participation' and Part V 'Science with and for society' to develop jointly new knowledge, future and emerging technologies, research infrastructures and key competences. Research infrastructures will also be leveraged for broader usage in society, for example in public services, promotion of science, civil security and culture. Furthermore, priority setting during implementation for the direct actions of the JRC and the activities of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) will be adequately coordinated with the other parts of Horizon 2020. Furthermore, in many cases, contributing effectively to the objectives of Europe 2020 and the flagship initiative "Innovation Union" will require solutions to be developed which are interdisciplinary in nature and therefore cut across multiple specific objectives of Horizon 2020. Horizon 2020 includes specific provisions to incentivise such cross-cutting actions, including by an efficient bundling of budgets. This includes also for instance the possibility for the priority "Societal challenges" and the specific objective "Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies" to make use of the provisions for financial instruments and the dedicated SME instrument. Cross-cutting actions will also be vital in stimulating the interactions between the priority "Societal challenges" and the specific objective "Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies", needed to generate major technological breakthroughs. Examples of where such interactions may be developed are: the domain of eHealth, smart grids, intelligent transport systems, mainstreaming of climate actions, nanomedicine, advanced materials for lightweight vehicles or the development of bio-based industrial processes and products. Strong synergies will therefore be fostered between the priority "Societal challenges" and the development of generic enabling and industrial technologies. This will be explicitly taken into account in developing the multi-annual strategies and the priority setting for each of these specific objectives. It will require that stakeholders representing the different perspectives are fully involved in the implementation, and in many cases it will also require actions which bring together funding from the specific objective "Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies" and the relevant specific objectives of the priority "Societal challenges". Particular attention will also be paid to the coordination of activities funded through Horizon 2020 with those supported under other Union funding programmes, such as the Common Agricultural Policy, the Common Fisheries Policy, the Life Programme, the Erasmus+ programme or the Health for Growth Programme and the Union's external and development funding programmes. This includes an appropriate articulation with the cohesion policy in the context of national and regional R&I strategies for smart specialisation, where support to capacity-building for research and innovation at regional level may act as a 'stairway to excellence', the establishment of regional centres of ex cellence may help close the innovation divide in Europe, or support to large-scale demonstration and pilot line projects may aid in achieving the objective of generating industrial leadership in Europe. Social sciences and humanities research will be fully integrated into each of the specific objectives of Horizon 2020. This will include ample opportunities for supporting such research through the specific objectives "The European Research Council (ERC)", "Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions" or "Research infrastructures". To this end, social sciences and humanities will also be mainstreamed as an essential element of the activities needed to enhance industrial leadership and to tackle each of the societal challenges. For the latter, this includes: understanding the determinants of health and optimising the effectiveness of healthcare provision; supporting policies empowering rural areas; researching and preserving Europe's cultural heritage and richness; promoting informed consumer choices; creating an inclusive digital ecosystem based on knowledge and information; robust decision making on energy policy and in ensuring a consumer-friendly European electricity grid and a transition to a sustainable energy system; supporting evidence-based transport policy and foresight; supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, resource efficiency initiatives and measures towards a green and sustainable economy; and understanding cultural and socio-economic aspects of security, risk and management issues (including legal and human rights aspects). In addition, the specific objective 'Europe in a changing world - Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies' will support social sciences and humanities research into issues of a horizontal nature such as the creation of smart and sustainable growth, social, cultural and behavioural transformations in European societies, social innovation, innovation in the public sector or the position of Europe as a global actor. The relationship and interaction between science and society as well as the promotion of responsible research and innovation, science education, science communication and culture shall be deepened and public confidence in science and innovation reinforced by activities of Horizon 2020 favouring the informed engagement of and a dialogue with citizens and civil society in research and innovation. Promoting gender equality in science and innovation is a commitment of the Union. In Horizon 2020, gender will be addressed as a cross-cutting issue in order to rectify imbalances between women and men and to integrate a gender dimension in research and innovation programming and content. Horizon 2020 will encourage and support the increased participation of SMEs in an integrated way across all specific objectives. In addition to the establishment of better conditions for SMEs to participate in Horizon 2020, in accordance with Article 22 of Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013, dedicated measures set out under the specific objective 'Innovation in SMEs' (dedicated SME instrument) shall be applied in the specific objective 'Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies' and in the priority 'Societal challenges'. This integrated approach should lead to a minimum of 20 % of their total combined budgets going to SMEs. Particular attention shall be paid to the adequate representation of SMEs in public-private partnerships referred to in Article 25 of Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013. FTI will reduce the time from idea to market significantly and is expected to increase the participation of industry and first-time applicants in Horizon 2020. FTI, as set out in Article 24 of Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013, will support innovation actions under the specific objective "Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies" and under the priority "Societal challenges", with a bottom-up-driven logic on the basis of a continuously open call, and "time to grant" not exceeding six months. FTI will contribute to innovation in Europe, underpinning the Union's competitiveness. The research and innovation potential of the Member States, despite some recent convergence, remains very different, with large gaps between "innovation leaders" and "modest innovators". Activities shall help close the research and innovation divide in Europe by promoting synergies with the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) and also by specific measures to unlock excellence in low performing research, development and innovation (RDI) regions, thereby widening participation in Horizon 2020 and contributing to the realisation of the ERA. International cooperation with partners in third countries is necessary to address effectively many specific objectives defined in Horizon 2020, in particular those relating to Union external and development policies and international commitments. This is the case for all the societal challenges addressed by Horizon 2020, which are common in nature. International cooperation is also essential for frontier and basic research in order to capture the benefits from emerging science and technology opportunities. Promoting R&I staff mobility at an international scale is therefore crucial to enhance this global cooperation. Activities at international level are equally important to enhance the competitiveness of European industry by promoting the take-up and trade of novel technologies, for instance through the development of worldwide standards and interoperability guidelines, and by promoting the acceptance and deployment of European solutions outside Europe. All international activities should be supported by an efficient and fair knowledge transfer framework which is critical for innovation and growth. The focus of international cooperation in Horizon 2020 will be on cooperation with three major country groupings: industrialised and emerging economies; enlargement and neighbourhood countries; and developing countries. Where appropriate, Horizon 2020 will promote cooperation at bi-regional or multilateral level. International cooperation in research and innovation is a key aspect of the Union's global commitments and has an important role to play in the Union's partnership with developing countries, such as progressing towards the achievement of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. Article 27 of Regulation (EU) No 1291/2013 sets out the general principles for participation of legal entities from third countries and of international organisations. As research and innovation in general benefit largely from an openness towards third countries, Horizon 2020 will continue with the principle of general openness while encouraging reciprocal access to third country programmes. Where appropriate, and in particular to safeguard European interest as regards intellectual property, a more cautious approach may be adopted. In addition, a range of targeted actions will be implemented taking a strategic approach to international cooperation on the basis of common interest, priorities and mutual benefit and promoting coordination and synergies with Member States' activities. This will include a mechanism for supporting joint calls and the possibility of co-funding programmes together with third countries or international organisations. Synergies with other Union policies will be sought. Strategic advice from the Strategic Forum for International Scientific and Technological Cooperation (SFIC) will continue to be sought. Without prejudice to other collaboration opportunities, examples of areas where such strategic international cooperation may be developed are: the continuation of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP2) on clinical trials for medical interventions against HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and neglected diseases; support by way of an annual subscription to the Human Frontier Science Programme (HFSP) to allow non-G7 Member States to fully benefit from the funding provided by the HFSP; international consortium on rare diseases, with a number of Member States and third countries. The aim of this initiative is to develop by 2020 diagnostic tests for most rare diseases and 200 new therapies for rare diseases; support to the activities of the International Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy Forum and the EU-US Task Force on Biotechnology Research as well as collaborative links with relevant international organisations and initiatives, such as global research alliances on agricultural greenhouse gases and on animal health; contribution to multilateral processes and initiatives, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO); the Space Dialogues between the Union and the United States and Russia, the two major space faring nations, is an extremely valuable one and forms the basis for the establishment of strategic cooperation in space partnerships; the implementing arrangement between the Union and the United States for cooperative activities in the field of Homeland Security/Civil Security/Research, signed on 18 November 2010; cooperation with developing countries, including from Sub-Saharan Africa, in the field of decentralised energy production for poverty alleviation; continuation of research collaboration with Brazil on new generation of biofuels and other uses of biomass. In addition, dedicated horizontal activities will be supported in order to ensure the coherent and effective development of international cooperation across Horizon 2020. Horizon 2020 will encourage and support activities towards exploiting Europe's leadership in the race to develop new processes and technologies promoting sustainable development, in a broad sense, and combating climate change. Such a horizontal approach, fully integrated in all Horizon 2020 priorities, will help the Union to prosper in a low-carbon, resource-constrained world while building a resource-efficient, sustainable and competitive economy. Bridging actions throughout Horizon 2020 are aimed at bringing discovery to market application, leading to exploitation and commercialisation of ideas whenever appropriate. The actions should be based on a broad innovation concept and stimulate cross-sectoral innovation. The cross-cutting issues will be supported by a number of horizontal support measures, including support to: enhancing the attractiveness of the research profession, including the general principles of the European Charter for Researchers, as set out in the Commission Recommendation of 11 March 2005 OJ L 75, 22.3.2005, p. 67. ; strengthening the evidence base and the development of and support for ERA (including the five ERA initiatives) and the flagship initiative "Innovation Union"; recognising top performing Horizon 2020 beneficiaries and projects in the different fields through symbolic awards; improving framework conditions in support of the flagship initiative "Innovation Union", including the principles of the Commission Recommendation on the management of intellectual property Commission Recommendation on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and Code of Practice for universities and other public research organisations (C(2008) 1329, of 10.4.2008). , and exploring the possibility of setting up an European Intellectual Property Rights valorisation instrument; and administration and coordination of international networks for excellent researchers and innovators, such as European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST).

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.