Active participation in European research steered by the EU

The CNRS Institute of Chemistry (INC) laboratories are extremely successful in the calls for projects of the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

This programme structures its funding around three priorities: "Scientific Excellence" (axe 1), "Industrial Leadership" (axe 2), "Societal Challenges" (axe 3). Between 2014 and 2017, CNRS researchers from the Institute of Chemistry were granted more than 120 collaborative or individual project awards with an average success rate close to 14%.

Scientific excellence

Nearly two-thirds of the successes fall under axe 1 with (still considering 2014-2017):

  • 23 ERC awards (European Research Council),
  • 38 MSCA awards (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions) focused on the mobility of researchers,
  • 13 winners of FET projects (Future Emerging Technologies), collaborative projects aimed at new multidisciplinary and high-risk research fields that are likely to lead to ground-breaking technologies in the medium or even long term.

The research infrastructure projects in which INC CNRS researchers are involved have also had an excellent success rate (19%, with 8 funded projects).

Industrial leadership and societal challenges

The INC is also well-represented in axe 2 dedicated to industrial innovation, because of the applicative nature of chemistry. Notably, the INC has been successful 12 times in NMBP calls (Nanotechnologies, Materials, Biotechnologies, Production). In 5 societal challenges (axe 3; health, bio-economy, energy, transport, climate), 19 projects were funded.

These results only show a fraction of the European activity that takes place in the CNRS chemistry laboratories. Effectively, many of the projects financed by Europe involve lecturers from INC laboratories, but these are not considered here, as no statistical data is available.