The European Union will offer Moldova a grant for taking part in the EU framework program for research and innovation Horizon 2020. The Government approved the opening of talks and the signing of the grant contract, IPN reports.

The grant in financial support for 2016 - 2017 is of €985 193.

Moldova’s participation in Horizon 2020 will contribute to strengthening the research and innovation sectors in the country and to integrating the national scientific community into the European one.

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU research and innovation program ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract.

Seen as a means to drive economic growth and create jobs, Horizon 2020 is helping to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth and jobs with its emphasis on excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges.

The program Horizon was presented in a meeting at the Academy of Sciences of Moldova after its launch in 2014, which involved researchers from a number of Eastern Partnership countries. There was worked out a guidebook for implementing this. In the previous edition of the program, Moldova took part as an observer.