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Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 (H2020), the European Union’s multiannual research and innovation programme, had a budget of close to €80 billion available from the EU budget and ran for the period 2014-2020. This common strategic framework for the EU’s funding of excellence in research and innovation also attracted additional investment from the private and public sectors.

H2020 followed on from the EU’s 7th framework programme for research and technological development and demonstration activities, which ran for the 2007-2013 period.

H2020 was designed to maximise EU added value and impact, focusing on objectives and activities that cannot be efficiently achieved by EU countries acting alone. It supported the implementation of the innovation union, one of the flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy, a 10-year strategy proposed in 2010. The strategy aimed, among other things, for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth to help secure the EU’s competitiveness.

H2020 was complemented by measures to help develop the European research area by breaking down barriers to create a genuine single market for knowledge, research and innovation.

H2020 is succeeded by Horizon Europe, the 9th multiannual research and innovation investment programme, which will run for the period from 2021 to 2027.

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