Maximising the participation of Walloon stakeholders in European research programmes

Interview with Mr Pierre FIASSE, NCP Wallonie

What are the goals of NCP Wallonie and what is the target audience? The European Commission requires Member States to establish a national contact point (NCP) to inform, advise, guide and support research players with regard to participation in its research, development and innovation framework programmes.

Based at the Walloon Business Union since 2002, this is NCP Wallonie’s role. The objective is to maximise the involvement of companies (SMEs in particular), universities, research centres and other Walloon entities in these European research programmes. To this end, our mission is to: - Identify Walloon players capable of participating in a European research programme; - Inform these entities, guide them towards the most relevant programme, identify potential partnerships and facilitate their implementation; - Provide customised assistance for the submission of projects; - Keep statistics on submitted and funded projects in which Belgian and Walloon players are involved.

In addition, NCP Wallonie is active in the Eurostars, Eureka and ERA-Nets programmes in which the Public Service Wallonia - Research participates and contributes.

What services do you offer to them? The services cover all phases involved in putting a project together: identification of ideas for Walloon projects and skills, optimum

choice of international call for projects, forming a consortium and support in the drafting phase (structuring and critical revision). The services also cover the legal and financial aspects for the reporting phase of ongoing projects. Lastly, first line advice is offered on intellectual property aspects.

In the 17 years the tools have been available, methods and genuine expertise have been developed. The strengths of this method include the possibility of identifying key European players “à la carte” and carrying out networking actions that will allow Walloon players to join the key consortia preparing the projects. © NCP Wallonie

Can you tell us about the various calls for proposals under the European programmes that are planned for 2020? The last calls under Horizon 2020 are mostly still open, with the majority of deadlines set for the period December 2019 to April 2020. In the areas of industrial competitiveness and societal challenges, the calls cover a very wide range of technologies. Several major trends can be observed in these calls: fewer topics per call but higher budgets; several major drivers such as digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) in particular; the circular economy, decarbonisation and climatic aspects.

What is your report on the involvement of Walloon players in Horizon 2020 and in other European research projects? The programme is still ongoing. To date, 128 Walloon companies have received funding, i.e. 9 more than in the previous framework programme. More than €107m in funding was also obtained in the thematic areas pursued by NCP Wallonie (industrial competitiveness and societal challenges). It can therefore be concluded that the objective of Horizon 2020, i.e. place innovation at the heart of the programme by involving more companies, has to a large extent been borne out by the facts. This is especially true when you consider that success rates have fallen significantly compared to the previous framework programme. This means that more projects need to be submitted to qualify for funding. Walloon companies have therefore submitted more projects than in the previous framework programme. It should be noted that Walloon players who received support from NCP Wallonie recorded a comparatively higher success rate than those who did not apply for support (24% as opposed to 13%). © NCP Wallonia