Europe proposes big new research program

The European Commission says Horizon 2020, its program to fund research and innovation from 2014 to 2020, is a success. So much so that the EC wants to up the ante for its next program. It is proposing a new program, Horizon Europe, to fund research in the European Union from 2021 to 2027. The EC wants to devote 100 billion euros (about $117 billion) to research through Horizon Europe, up 25% from Horizon 2020. Making the case for Horizon Europe, the EC points to achievements from the current program, such as graphene-based supercapacitors from the Estonian company Skeleton and a project by the Italian chemical companies Novamont and Matrica to turn thistle into biobased monomers for plastics and cosmetics.