The business group Ueapme has warned that Horizon 2020 could remain a programme for scientific research that doesn’t effectively promote innovation, unless measures to promote SME involvement are pushed through.
Ueapme, which represents small business associations across Europe, says it fears that national research ministers are opposing improvements to include SMEs because they are closer to universities and research centres than to innovation.
“If the ministers for science win, this would mean no single management structure, no dedicated budget and no bottom-up calls [for the SME instrument],” said Ueapme president Gunilla Almgren at an SME event on 30 May. “In this case we are really afraid Horizon 2020 will stay a programme for scientific research, but it will again fail to deliver successfully on innovation.”
This article on Research Professional News is only available to Research Professional or Pivot-RP users.
Research Professional users can log in and view the article via this link
Pivot-RP users can log in and view the article via this link.