SUPA has recently received a further tranche of funding from the Scottish Funding Council to compete for, and participate in, European funding. The purpose of the funding, known as PEER, is to enable SUPA:

• to submit applications for European funding under Horizon 2020 and as part of that process
• to engage and build partnerships with industry, particularly (but not exclusively) Scottish SMEs
• to establish network connections, showcase skills and capabilities and participate in specific networking activities

SUPA PEER funding is available to support applications to current and future EU funding calls. This might include funding specialist consultants, finding company partners to join consortia, funding academic travel for consortium or networking meetings, or other relevant activity.

PEER funding has been successfully used to support pre-proposal consortium meetings across Europe and to attend networking events and call development events such as Photonics 21 meetings. We have also used PEER funding to help pay for consultant support. To date, 50% of proposals using PEER funded consultant support have been successful (versus 14% overall and 20% in the ICT theme).