The Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)  programme is part of the first pillar “Excellent science”of Horizon 2020, and promotes research projects for the exploration of innovative ideas open to all technological areas.

The programme comprises three different schemes:

• FET Open, which gives support for scientific research and technological innovation at an early stage to develop radically new ideas;
• FET Proactive, focused on research in emerging areas;
• FET Flagship, devoted to research projects with substantial long-term impact on society (Human Brain, Graphene)

FET Proactive encourages researchers from different disciplines to work together on new technologies in novel and non-conventional areas that are not yet ready for inclusion in industry research roadmaps, with the aim of building up and structuring new research communities.

In the FET Work Programme 2016-2017, FET Proactive consists of the three following initiatives:

• FETPROACT-01-2016: FET Proactive: emerging themes and communities 
• FETPROACT-02-2017: FET ERANET Cofund
• FETPROACT-03-2016: FET ERANET Cofund in Quantum Technologies

FET Proactive – Emerging themes and communities

The aim is to mature four novel areas (with a total of 10 related subtopics) by working towards structuring emerging communities and supporting the design and development of transformative research themes.

Area 1: Future technologies for societal change

– Being human in a technological world
– New science for a globalised world

Area 2: Biotech for better life

– Intra- and inter-cell bio-technologies
– Bio-electronic medicines and therapies
– Cognitive neuro-technologies

Area 3: Disruptive information technologies

– New computing paradigms and their technologies
– Quantum engineering
– Hybrid opto-electro-mechanical devices at the nano-scale

Area 4: New technologies for energy and functional materials

– Ecosystem engineering
– Complex bottom-up construction

The project ideas submitted for one of the 10 subtopics in “FET Proactive Emerging Themes and Communities” will be competing with all other proposals submitted, and in particular with proposals submitted to other subtopics in the same area (till the maximum budget per area).

The total budget available is 80 million euro. The funding budget per area amounts to a maximum of 20 million euro for each of the areas 1 and 4, and a maximum of 30 million euro for each of the areas 2 and 3.

The type of actions envisaged under this call are Research and Innovation actions, with a EU funding rate of 100% of the eligible costs.

To be eligible for participation, consortia submitting the proposals should be composed of at least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country.

The deadline foreseen for this call is 12 April 2016.

FET Proactive – High Performance Computing

The high performance computing (HPC) is of strategic importance to European society and is one of the key elements underlying the EU strategy for the Digital Single Market. These systems can be used in different sectors, from analysis of genetic diseases to the weather forecast.
According to a study by the European Commission, over the last 5 years, Europe has improved its performance within HPC, getting closer and closer to the United States, Japan and China, but there is still much to be done especially in terms of SMEs.

The FET Proactive call on HPC has the ultimate goal of achieving world-class extreme scale computing capabilities in platforms, technologies and applications, and is divided into the following topics:

• FETHPC-01-2016: Co-design of HPC systems and applications
• FETHPC-02-2017: Transition to Exascale Computing
• FETHPC-03-2017: Exascale HPC ecosystem development

The total amount of funding available is 85 million euro, of which 41 million euro are earmarked for FETHPC-01-2016, the sole call to be opened in 2016.

Further information about “FET Proactive – Emerging Themes and Communities” and “FET Proactive – High Performance Computing” are available on the Participant Portal.