Since the beginning of July 2020, the Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR) has been home to a new Scientific Coordination Office (WKS) which has been tasked with strengthening scientific and technical cooperation between Bavaria and Africa.

Since 15 June 2020, the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) has been managing a part of the Innovation Fund programme via grants.

The EIC Fund, which will provide equity from €0.5m to €15m to breakthrough innovation companies selected for EIC Accelerator blended finance support (grant and equity), has become an official entity.

Until 3 June 2020 the European Commission gives you the opportunity to help shaping the Green Deal Call which is due to be opened mid-September 2020.

The Commission has mobilised another €122 million from its research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020, for research into the coronavirus.

The Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) has recently launched its seventh call for project proposals (H2020-BBI-JTI-2020).

The National Research Council (NRC) of Canada and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) will provide access to public funding for joint Canadian-German R&D projects through Germany´s largest innovation programme for small and medium-sized enterprises (ZIM), and through the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) in Canada. The aim is to develop innovative technical products, services or processes with a strong market potential. The submission deadline is 30 June 2020.

The European Commission has recently launched its 2020 call for project proposals under the LIFE programme.

Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 COST Open Call (OC-2020-1) will be postponed by 6 months and will now close on 29 October.

The last calls in the European Innovation Council (EIC) and FET work programme will open on Thursday 26 March. For this purpose, the network of National Contact Points to the EIC (Access2EIC) will hold an information day on this day from 9:30 - 15:30. From 9:40 - 11:15 the EIC Pathfinder Team will present news about the FET Open and FET Proactive Calls to the European Commission. Afterwards, news on the SME instrument will be presented.