Alternative Mechanisms for Funding Research in the European Union

Today, despite the known scale of European Union grant funding in support of research and innovation, the EU Commission seeks to ensure the use of alternative sources of funding, for example, venture capital financing by collective investment enterprises, including through the creation of a pan-European fund of funds, as well as using such mechanisms like crowdfunding. The paper provides an analysis of three possible promising areas of alternative financing using the current mechanisms of the financial market, which are used on an equal basis both in the EU and in other countries, including an analysis of obtaining funding for projects that received grants under the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Program. The first way is to finance scientific projects thanks to new venture funding mechanisms of the European fund VentureEU, the second is to ensure the attraction of funds through crowdfunding (collective financing), the third way is provided by enterprises entering an IPO. The use of alternative methods of financing makes it possible, on the one hand, to ensure the commercialization of research projects that allow research teams to receive additional remuneration and direct it to further work in the field of research, and on the other hand, to draw public attention to pressing problems of science and technology.

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