With this note LERU calls attention to Horizon 2020 and its possibilities: to forge better links not only between university research laboratories but also with companies, there should be more room for bottom-up, collaborative discovery research. Analyses by LERU from 2014-2015 and 2016-2017 show that a more balanced distribution of Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) in the various calls of the 2018-2019 work programme of H2020, especially in H2020’s pillars II and III, is needed to achieve these possibilities. Of course LERU recognises that collaborative discovery research is possible through the H2020’s pillar I (cf. FET Open and FET Proactive), however, the oversubscription of the FET scheme illustrates the opportunities it could bring to pillars II and III. Furthermore, LERU calls on national funding agencies to acknowledge the utmost importance of a balanced distribution of funding for research.