Several EU member states and organisations representing European universities have recently published position papers regarding Horizon 2020. Switzerland and Norway, together with EARTO (European Association of Research and Technology Organisations) and EUA (European University Association) cover a range of issues in their position papers, especially focusing on the Horizon 2020 rules for participation. All papers expressed concern about the single reimbursement rate for all types of partners in Horizon 2020 projects and call specifically for the option to use real indirect costs to be reinstated, alongside the proposed 20 per cent flat rate. In addition, the EARTO paper includes an analysis on how research organisations will be affected by the proposed new reimbursement rate, based on a survey of the 20 research organisations most active in FP7 Cooperation.

Furthermore, following topics were of interest:

• the need for further clarification of synergies between Horizon 2020 and other funding streams,
• concern about the comparative low funding proposed for Marie Curie Actions;
• a request for clarification of the differences between the ERC and the proposed extension of the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) scheme; 
• the lack of concrete measures to improve the gender balance across all aspects of Horizon 2020.