Citizens' concerns and priorities of European policy cannot be addressed without innovation. H2020 provides a challenge and multidisciplinary-based approach that will bring together resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies and disciplines, including social sciences and humanities in order to tackle these concerns and policies. This will cover activities from research to market with a new focus on innovation-related activities, such as piloting, demonstration, test-beds and support for public procurement and market uptake.

Research projects financed under this pillar will follow a top-down approach aiming a specific goal (described in each call) and are thought to be developed under a consortium of several institutions from at least three European countries.