Health NCP Net 2.0 aims at improving and professionalizing the NCP service, thus achieving a more consistent level of NCP support services across Europe with the final goal to better support applicants and raise the average quality of proposals submitted. HNN 2.0 builds upon the experience and results of the previous Health NCP Net project with the objective of responding to the new challenges that the “Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing” NCPs face in the new programme Horizon 2020, such as the broadened thematic scope of the Societal Challenge 1, and the enlarged mandate of the “Health” NCPs. An objective of the HNN 2.0 project is to satisfy the needs and priorities of all different types of NCPs, notably newcomers, NCPs with fewer resources, NCPs from EU-13 and NCPs in Third Countries so as to face the challenge of the current heterogeneity of the network The enlarged mandate of “Health” NCPs and the holistic focus of H2020 imply that NCPs need to create expert knowledge and look for it outside the SC1 Network by having a holistic approach and liaising and collaborating with other support structures, projects and programmes. HNN 2.0 will therefore have a real structured coordination with the other NCP and support networks such as Ideal-IST, EEN and Fit for Health 2.0, where collaboration for joint activities like training courses, meet and exchange workshops and brokerage events is established. Main tools towards the objectives: - support and information materials - comprehensive training programme - mentoring programme (staff exchanges, mentoring programme for EU-13, twinning with the European Commission) - Meet and Exchange workshops with NCPs from other disciplines - system of email alert for NCPs about research funding and related policies - information and communication hub for SC1-NCPs (easy access to information and services , exchange of information and opinions between SC1-NCPs) - International brokerage events

ETNA2020 is a 60-month Coordination and Support Action with the overall aim of facilitating trans-national co-operation among NCPs for ‘Smart, Green and Integrated Transport’, identifying and sharing good practices, and raising the general standard of the support to programme applicants across the EU and globally. To reach the objective above, the project will develop five main activity axes, corresponding to the projects’ specific objectives: 1)raise understanding of EU Transport R&I landscape; 2)capacity building of NCPs; 3)upgrade the set of tools for NCP assistance; 4)strengthen the participation of relevant stakeholders to Horizon 2020 funding opportunities; 5)support networking opportunities within the ‘Smart, Green and Integrated Transport’ constituency. Cross-cutting activities of dissemination and communication will addup to this main set of activities, helping to enhance their impact. ETNA2020 is the continuation and evolution of the precedent network, ETNA Plus, whose results and lessons learnt have been taken into consideration with the logic of improving the future network and in order to valorize the network’s strengths. ETNA2020 will also take into account the paradigmatic change brought by Horizon 2020. This will be reflected in ETNA2020 activities, and, in particular, in a stronger attention of the network in terms of multidisciplinary competences, consideration of related societal challenges, and linkage with other EU relevant initiatives, funding programmes and policies. Finally, the network will seek further opening to a wider target of stakeholders and businesses in the Transport field. ETNA2020 consortium comprises 16 beneficiaries, with a good mix of well-experienced and less experienced NCPs coming from Member States and Associated Countries. Besides beneficiaries, the project services will be offered to all officially appointed H2020 Transport NCPs, who will be involved as “Associated partners”.

C-ENERGY 2020 is a 48 months Coordination and Support Action having the specific objectives to Ensuring high quality Energy NCP services for Horizon 2020 and related programmes applicants; Lowering entry barriers for Energy NCPs approaching EU Framework Programmes for R&I for the first time; Consolidating the network of Energy NCPs. C-ENERGY 2020 project will take into consideration the significant changes that Horizon 2020 has brought about the Energy NCP mandate. With its brand new approach to R&I Horizon 2020 demands Energy NCPs: a) to address their services to a wider target, b) to have specific multidisciplinary competences. C-ENERGY 2020, whose consortium is composed by experienced and less experienced Energy NCPs from 18 countries, will tackle these challenges building up the NCP capacity by organising benchmarking activities, at least 8 training sessions and 12 twinning schemes. The dialogue with energy participants will benefit of at least 2 enhanced cross-border brokerage events and 9 training sessions for stakeholders. The project will also take special care of outreaching activities by extending the collaboration with other NCP thematic networks, cooperating with EEN, working on partner search and cooperating on international relevant activities. Finally, communication within and outside the Energy NCP network and the dissemination of results will be ensured through the website, the development of promotion/information materials, the participation at major events and PR activities and an e-mail alert service/newsletter. Throughout the project special attention will be paid to the diversity of stakeholders in the energy sector, the gender dimension, as well as to establish links with other EU relevant initiatives, programmes and policies.

The National Contact Points perform valuable services in guiding and supporting national applicants in preparing proposals for Horizon 2020 funding. We expect that through an enhanced cooperation and networking between these national entities, a higher quality of their consulting services and thus of proposals and projects can be achieved. Therefore, the overall objective of NCPs CaRE is to form a joint cooperation network of experienced and less experienced NCPs on SC5 “Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials” which aims at pooling their resources and know-how to raise the overall quality of services provided to their clients. By involving 23 formally nominated National Contact Points across Europe, the NCPs CaRE project will significantly strengthen trans-national cooperation. In addition, NCPs CaRE will extensively involve the 26 NCPs that have decided to become “associated partner”. To harness synergies is especially relevant to SC5 NCPs, since potential applicants within this Challenge are very diverse with respect to their scientific or organisational background, level of experience, involvement in transnational networks. Concretely, activities of NCPs CaRE towards this goal include, amongst others, teaming and twinning schemes, the compilation of best practices handbooks and manuals, events, meetings and trainings both on-line and on a face-to-face basis, as well as a wide range of other communication and dissemination tools and platforms. These activities foreseen by NCPs CaRE will contribute to enhancing the impact of R&I in SC5 and ensure a more efficient use of resources and R&I developments by improving the work flow between NCPs, applicants, the Commission, and other parties with a stake in SC5. Tailor-made like they are for the SC5 constituency, these activities will make it easier for all participating and benefitting NCPs to enhance the number of proposals with regards to both quantity and quality.

The project aims at offering specific services to 2 different groups of SMEs based in the Brussels Capital Region: the SME Instrument beneficiaries and the SMEs having a high potential for growth and internationalisation by the enhancement of their innovation management capacity. These services will be an integral part of Enterprise Europe Brussels services. Although for the SME Instrument beneficiaries, the proposer depends on the number of successful SMEs granted, a funnel approach will be adopted for both SMEs Groups in order to have an upstream estimation and selection of the SME potential existing in the region. This funnel and selective approach will also take into consideration the permeable frontiers which divide one SME group from the other, in light of the innovation needs and capacities at a given time of the SME lifecycle. The service provision for Group2 will be ensured via a structured process of SMEs pre-selection, set up according to a pre-defined methodology which relies on ad-hoc tools and processes, designed with the aim to select only those SMEs with the capacity, clear intent and ambition to benefit from the innovation management assessment. The pre-selection tool is based on 8 criteria: each of them has been attributed a weight according to its importance. In function of the score obtained in these different areas, the SME will be selected (or not) to benefit from the innovation management capacity assessment through the Imp³rove methodology. The I²BENE proposal addresses the obstacles which hinder Brussels-based SMEs from being more competitive, from growing and creating new jobs, thus having a real impact in the regional economy, and establishing a link between the research development process and the uptake of innovative products by SMEs. The identified obstacles or barriers are mainly linked to the difficulty SMEs have got in bringing their R&D efforts to the market and this with a sound exploitation strategy.