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Medilink East Midlands, the region’s life science industry association is assisting the region’s life science SMEs to access Horizon 2020 (H2020), a new €70 billion stream of EU grant funding launched this month, January 2014.

Medilink delivers the region’s Healthcare and Bioscience iNet, and is equipped with the skills and expertise to be able to offer SMEs operating in the healthcare, medical technology and pharmaceutical industries a head start in their applications for funding, as well as strategic direction, guidance and advise on which funding channels to pursue.

H2020 is the result of a merger of three different funding streams and has been established to implement the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation from 2014-2020.

For businesses, securing European funding has historically been a long and complicated process, however this new approach means funding opportunities are clearer and can be accessed sooner.

H2020 includes a new initiative to facilitate the engagement of SMEs, and the process has been devised to be more accessible for smaller businesses and actively seeks their participation.p 

The European Commission’s objective is to allocate twenty percent of the budget to SMEs, specifically in the areas of promoting industry and driving social change. This is in recognition of their innovative potential to help drive the programme forward.

The overarching objective of the European Health Challenge is to improve the health of European citizens and to boost the competitiveness of health-related industries and businesses while addressing global health issues. This has been broken down into specific priorities including; promoting excellence in science, developing more competitive industries and creating a better society.

Octavio Pernas, H2020 National Contact Point for Health commented: “Horizon 2020 has done much to simplify the application process and aims to reduce the average time taken from the start of the process, to receiving grant funding by several months. The new programme will also include a single funding rate, and cover 100% of the eligible costs for each project, which is a significant difference to the previous framework programme.”

The scheme encourages a collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach and intends to foster greater collaboration between industry and the academic world. In this sense consortiums are encouraged to apply, fusing the skill sets of the academic and business worlds to address the challenges set out by the EU.

Businesses wishing to secure funding are advised to first to contact Medilink or any of the other support networks detailed on the website, to help identify which opportunities are available and appropriate for your business and commercial objectives.”

Darren Clark, Medilink Chief Executive commented: “Our team engages extensively with SMEs and has a sound understanding of individual businesses and how they can utilize funding to their best advantage. European funding can be complex, and our team is on hand to help businesses identify the appropriate funding streams for their individual needs, and assist them in their applications.

Over 100 delegates attended our H2020 event hosted last month expressing interest in the new EU initiative. We are actively encouraging our members to look into the new opportunities available to them.

The UK has the highest level of participation in successful health projects in Europe and has secured €670 million of EU funding for health research since 2007. SMEs are the main economic drivers of healthcare, biotechnology and medical technologies, and it is their innovation that will help meet the future health and wellbeing challenges outlined by the EU. ”

Any legal entity in the 27 member states of Europe, plus Associated Countries, can take part. Consortiums for Health research proposals may include industry (large and small), research organisations, universities, NHS Trusts, policy makers, regulatory authorities, ethical experts etc. Collaboration with International Cooperation Partner Countries (ICPC) is also encouraged in all areas.

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