A report outlining the last two years of progress of Horizon 2020, the EU’s largest research and innovation framework program, indicated that the program is drawing a large number of researchers. From the program’s establishment in 2013 to 2015, 76,427 eligible research proposals were received, and there was a 25.5% increase in the number of proposals submitted in 2015 compared to the previous year. In 2015, the number of high quality proposals received grew by 40.2%. High quality proposals that were funded in 2014 and 2015 made up 26% of total proposals, while the success rate for proposals (i.e., proposals which were retained for funding) was 12%.

Proposals with the lowest success rates in 2015 were in the Future and Emerging Technologies program, of which approximately 2% were retained for funding, a 72.7% decrease in success rate from 2014. In regards to funding, Future and Emerging Technologies’ success rate was 8% in 2014 but dropped to 1.7% in 2015. In 2015, the proposal success rate for research infrastructures increased 3.8% to approximately 25%, while the funding success rate fell 13.4% to 25%.

The proposal success rate for the Small- and Medium-Enterprise program fell from 41% in 2014 to 25% in 2015, while the funding success rate tumbled 83.7%, from 63% to 10%. Private companies submitted 97,019 eligible applications in the first two years of the program. During the same time period, approximately €10.6 billion ($11.4 billion = €0.94 = $1) was allocated to university and research grants.

Source: European Commission