Next Horizon Europe Programme and Thematic groups in the Forward project

Webinar “The Perspectives of the Horizon Europe Programme (2021-2027) and its relation with the Thematic Groups in the FORWARD project”

The event organized by ARDITI and UMa, in the scope of the FORWARD project (Fostering Research Excellence in EU Outermost Regions – https://forward-h2020.eu/), addressed topics related to the new European funding framework program.

The Regional Agency for Research, Technological Development and Innovation (ARDITI) and the University of Madeira (UMa) promoted, on November 19, a webinar on “The perspectives of the Horizon Europe Program (2021-2027) and its relation to the Thematic Working Groups of the FORWARD project [translated from “As perspetivas do Programa Horizonte Europa (2021-2027) e a sua relação com os Grupos Temáticos no projeto FORWARD“.]

            For this initiative, FORWARD was presented by Lúcio Quintal (ARDITI), technical coordinator of the project, who also identified the different areas of the thematic groups and their respective members and coordinators from Madeira, one of the nine outermost regions (OR’s).

Ana Caires (CEO of Saturntech), expert in European projects and European Commission evaluator, presented the new EU Research and Innovation Framework Program (2021-2027) and detailed its three pillars, pillar 1 – Excellent Science; pillar 2 – Global Challenges and European Industrial competitiveness; pillar 3 – Innovative Europe: stimulate revolutionary advancements and generators of markets and innovation ecosystems. She also presented the five mission areas covered by the new framework program, which are 1) Adaptation to climate change including societal transformation; 2) Cancer; 3) Climate-neutral and smart cities; 4) Healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters; and 5) Soil health and food. To conclude, Ana Caires provided practical suggestions for the interested participants in obtaining European funding.

Claudio Mantero, director of the R&D department of the Horários do Funchal (HF), also evaluator of European Commission project proposals, talked about Thematic Working Group 5: Climate change and Energy transition (of which he is the inter-regional coordinator in this project) and the perspectives for Madeira and the OR’s.

To conclude, Miguel Carvalho, from the Centro de Agricultura Sustentável e Tecnologia Alimentar da Universidade da Madeira (ISOPLEXIS / UMa), talked about the Thematic Group 6: Agriculture and Biotechnology (of which he is the regional coordinator of this project) and the research perspectives in the Autonomous Region of Madeira in the scope of the Green Deal.

Attended to the event about 80 (online) participants, which connected from Madeira, the Azores, and even Portugal mainland.

Presentations of the speakers are available to download at https://we.tl/t-M1BfgcQika. The video of the event will also soon be available in the project’s YouTube channel (https://bit.ly/36YeskA).

To contact the project’s coordinators in Madeira, please send an email to forward-project@arditi.pt.

Funchal, 24th November  2020