The European Commission launched on January 10, 2018, a series of public consultations clustered by key policy areas, in preparation for the EU's next long-term budget post-2020 (MFF). Citizens, organisations and businesses can give their views online until 8 March 2018.

The official communiqué of the EC reinforces the importance of the participation of these actors, based on the EU added value of EU R&I programme and the success of Horizon 20202. The aim of the EC is to extend the frontiers of knowledge, boosting Europe's productivity and competitiveness, addressing the grand societal challenges and sustaining its socio-economic model and values. The public consultation on the Interim Evaluation of Horizon 2020, for example, received over 3500 replies - a strong signal of interest.

The consultation on EU funds in the area of investment, research & innovation, SMEs and single market can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/consultations/public-consultation-eu-funds-area-investment-research-innovation-smes-and-single-market_en.