Novelty and long-term vision key for successful FET proposals

Source: Research Executive Agency (REA), published on Thursday, January 28 2016.

On 25th January 2016, the Research Executive Agency (REA) organised an Info Day in cooperation with the Commission Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG Connect i) dedicated to a set of Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) calls.

REA Communication

The event attracted 155 participants and over 1000 viewers online and targeted potential applicants for different calls:

FET Open: Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA)

FET Proactive: Topic 'Emerging themes and communities'.

There is great interest in the FET actions and the info day was proof of this. As Walter Van de Velde, programme officer at DG Connect, said ‘FET has always been extremely competitive, but there's still something about it that keeps projects coming’. Ivica Cubic, also programme officer at DG Connect added that ‘Novelty, ambition and long-term vision are crucial features of a successful FET proposal’. The success rate of proposals to be funded is significantly low, as the interest is much bigger than the funding available.

In the afternoon networking session interested participants pitched their project, idea or the facilities of their institution to explore possible collaborations for FET. The first part of the session focused on networking for FET-OPEN, while the second part was oriented towards FET PROACTIVE.

The FET Open calls for Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and for Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) will have their first cut-off date on 11 May 2016 and the FET Proactive call on 12 April 2016.

Access the event page with all presentations and the recording.