Financial News

Ireland wins over €250m in funding from EU programme

By Business & Finance
29 March 2016
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Projects with Irish participation have won a total of €251m in competitive funding from Horizon 2020, the European Union’s programme for research and innovation.

Ireland recorded a spectacular success in the Marie Skodowska-Curie sub-programme of Horizon 2020, which promotes the training of researchers. The Higher Education system accounted for €157m of the total and companies based in Ireland a further €72m.

In the most recent round of funding Ireland won €18.5m, equivalent to 35% of the available Marie Skodowska-Curie budget, bringing Ireland’s total from this sub-programme to €49m.

Horizon 2020, which runs over the period from 2014 to 2020, has a total budget of almost €75bn and Ireland has a national target of winning €1.25bn in funding over the course of the programme.

Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien English said: ”I am delighted with this performance to date which clearly shows that Ireland is on track to achieve its ambitious national target of €1.25bn. This success bears testimony to the excellence of research in Ireland, both in our higher education system and in our innovative companies. It shows that our researchers are among the best in the EU”.

Imelda Lambkin, national director for Horizon 2020 at Enterprise Ireland, added: “A key role of Enterprise Ireland is to support the commercialisation of research and the development of innovative businesses. We are proud to lead Ireland’s participation in Horizon 2020 and the €250m in funding secured by Irish researchers and companies under the programme demonstrates the strength and leadership of the people involved. We will continue to work with Irish researchers and companies to meet our Horizon 2020 funding targets as they target larger projects.”