Interview with Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, EU Commissioner for Research & Innovation

“It’s all about simplification – radical simplification,” said EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, putting forward her vision of how the €79 billion Horizon 2020 programme will chip away at the huge problems of our age, in ageing and chronic disease, energy supply and climate change, and sustainable and adequate food production – and why she expects to see willingness from industry to engage with academics in dealing with these challenges.

A new Participant Portal will make it as easy as a Google search for researchers and businesses to find opportunities for participation, she said, while a reduced time to grant of eight months will help people get their money faster. “At the end of the day, that is what we want,” Geoghegan-Quinn told Science|Business.

Following the conclusion of negotiations earlier this week, the first calls for Horizon 2020 funding streams will go live on December 11 and will run for three to four months. The Commission expects 40,000 applications to the programme every year. “If the inquiries that are being made at the moment are anything to go by, I think we will have an enormous amount of people that want to apply,” said Geoghegan-Quinn.

Click on the following link to see the whole interview.