Programme: Horizon 2020 - Societal Challenges

Programme	Horizon 2020 - Societal Challenges
Type of Fund	Action programme
Description of programme "Horizon 2020 - Societal Challenges "	A challenge-based approach will bring together resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies and disciplines, including social sciences and the humanities. This will cover activities from research to market with a new focus on innovation-related activities, such as piloting, demonstration, test-beds, and support for public procurement and market uptake. Funding focuses on the following challenges: Health, demographic change and wellbeing; Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy; Secure, clean and efficient energy; Smart, green and integrated transport; Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials; Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societies; Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.
Link	Link to Programme
Thematic Focus	Green Technologies & Green Deal, Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, Clustering, Development Cooperation, Economic Cooperation, Agriculture & Forestry, Fishery, Food, Research & Innovation, Technology Transfer & Exchange, Art & Culture, Cultural Heritage, History, Media, Health, Social Affairs, Sports, Capacity Building, Cooperation Networks, Institutional Cooperation, Equal Rights, Human Rights, People with Disabilities, Social Inclusion, Demographic Change, Migration, Circular Economy, Sustainability, Natural Resources, Mobility & Transport/Traffic , Justice, Safety & Security, Digitisation, ICT, Telecommunication, Urban development, Competitiveness, SME
EU Macro-Regions	Adriatic and Ionian Region, Alpine Region, Baltic Sea Region, Danube Region
Funding area	EU Member States Albania / Shqipëria Bosnia and Herzegovina Iceland / Ísland Moldova Montenegro / Crna Gora/Црна Гора North Macedonia / Северна Македонија Norway / Norge Serbia / Сpбија Switzerland / Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera Turkey / Türkiye Ukraine / Україна Oukraïna Others
Origin of Applicant	EU Member States Albania / Shqipëria Bosnia and Herzegovina Iceland / Ísland Moldova Montenegro / Crna Gora/Црна Гора North Macedonia / Северна Македонија Norway / Norge Serbia / Сpбија Switzerland / Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera Turkey / Türkiye Ukraine / Україна Oukraïna Others
Project Partner	Yes
Project Partner Details	As a principle all projects (except coordination and support activities) must comprise at least 3 partners from at least 3 EU Member States or other eligible countries.
Eligible applicants	Education and Training Centres, Federal State / Region / City / Municipality / Local Authority, Lobby Group / Professional Association / Trade Union, Research Institution, International Organization, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, SMEs (between 10 and 249 employees), Microenterprises (fewer than 10 employees), NGO / NPO, Public Services, Other, National Government, Start Up Company, University, Enterprise (more than 250 employees or not defined), Association
Applicant details	All legal entities located in the EU or in Third Countries can participate in Horizon 2020.
Type of Funding	Grants
Contact Details	Link to the National Contact Point Finder.

Subprogrammes of Horizon 2020 - Societal Challenges

Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy

This Programme aims to promote the transition towards an optimal and renewable use of biological resources and towards sustainable primary production and processing systems. These systems will need to produce more food, fibre and other bio-based products with minimised inputs, environmental impact and greenhouse gas emissions, and with enhanced ecosystem services, zero waste and adequate societal value.

Europe in a changing world - Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies

This subprogramme will address social exclusion, discriminations and various forms of inequalities. It will explore new forms of innovation and strengthen the evidence base for the Innovation Union, the European Research Area and other relevant EU policies. It will promote coherent and effective cooperation with third countries. Finally, it will address the issues of memories, identities, tolerance and cultural heritage. The approach adopted in the present calls is in line with the Horizon 2020 Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) cross-cutting issue, engaging multiple actors including society, integrating the gender and ethical dimensions, ensuring the access to research outcomes. Some Topics deal specifically with formal and informal (science) education.

Secure societies – Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens

The primary aims of the Secure Societies Challenge are:

to enhance the resilience of our society against natural and man-made disasters, ranging from the development of new crisis management tools to communication interoperability, and to develop novel solutions for the protection of critical infrastructure;
to fight crime and terrorism ranging from new forensic tools to protection against explosives;
to improve border security, ranging from improved maritime border protection to supply chain security and to support the Union's external security policies including through conflict prevention and peace building;
and to provide enhanced cyber-security, ranging from secure information sharing to new assurance models

Smart, Green and Integrated Transport

Within this programme Horizon 2020 will provide funding for a resource efficient transport that respects the environment, aims at a better mobility, less congestion, more safety and security, supports a global leadership for the European transport industry and targets a socio-economic and behavioural research and forward looking activities for policy making.

Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

This Subprogramme aims to achieve a resource- and water-efficient economoy and society that is also resilient to climate change. Furthermore, it seeks to promote the protection and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems. Lastly, the Programme also supports the sustainable supply and use of raw materials, in order to meet the needs of a growing global population within the sustainable limits of the planet's natural resources and eco-systems.

Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing

Responding to the challenge of an aging population, research and innovation (R&I) under Horizon 2020 is an investment in better health for all. It aims to keep older people active and independent for longer and supports the development of new, safer and more effective interventions. R&I under Horizon 2020 also contributes to the sustainability of health and care systems.

Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy

This Sub-Programme is structured around seven specific objectives and research areas:

Reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint
Low-cost, low-carbon electricity supply
Alternative fuels and mobile energy sources
A single, smart European electricity grid
New knowledge and technologies
Robust decision making and public engagement
Market uptake of energy and ICT innovation.

Clean Sky 2

Clean Sky 2 builds on the work of its predecessor Clean Sky but will also drive towards more ambitious objectives. Specifically, Clean Sky 2 aims to contribute to improving the environmental impact of aeronautical technologies, including those relating to small aviation, as well as to developing a strong aeronautical industry and supply chain in Europe.
This can be achieved through speeding up the development of cleaner air transport technologies, and in particular the integration, demonstration and validation of technologies capable of:

increasing fuel efficiency, thus reducing CO2 emissions by 20 to 30% comparted to 'state-of-the-art' aircraft entering into service as from 2014
reducing aircraft NO_x and noise emissions by 20 to 30% compared to 'state-of-the-art' aircraft entering into service as from 2014