EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme 2021-2027
Horizon Europe (HE) is oriented to the achievement of the political priorities of the EU, among them the Green Deal (mitigate the climate change and suggest a more ecological and sustainable economy), the Digital Development and the Recovery Plan of the current pandemic situation (to become more resilient societies and to prepare for future crises).
A total budget of 95,500 million Euros (including the 5,400 million Euros from the Next Generation EU Recovery Program), 35% of which will be allocated to projects and initiatives related to climate change. This budget represents an increase of 30% over the current program, making it the most ambitious R&I program in the world.
Main Elements
- Continues to promote scientific excellence through the European Research Council (ERC), the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions for mobility and career development (MSCA) and Research infrastructures.
- The creation of the European Innovation Council (EIC) to improve European competitiveness and foster disruptive market innovation.
- Working through Missions, designed to coordinate R&D efforts towards defined societal benefits and achieve ambitious, inspiring and measurable goals by 2030. Five mission areas are included: cancer, climate change adaptation, green transformation of cities, soil and healthy food, and protecting our waters and oceans.
- The promotion of a new generation of European Partnerships (including partnerships and joint initiatives between countries and public-private partnerships) with common governance and rules.
- Maximising the EU's research and innovation potential, enhancing the participation of entities from Member States or associated countries with a scientific output below the European average to reduce the R&I gap between countries and strengthen the European Research Area.
- The principle of "open science" as the modus operandi of the programme to improve the dissemination and exploitation of results and greater public participation.
- Open access: compulsory both for publications and for data with the possibility of opting out for justified reasons (commercialisation, sensitive data, etc.). Publication costs are eligible except hybrid journals (they were eligible in H2020).
- Gender Plans: From 2022, it will be introduced as an eligibility criterion for research institutions (universities and centres) and public bodies.
- Enhance international cooperation, enabling non-European countries to participate as associated partners and open their programmes to the participation of European entities.
- Promote synergies and complementarities with other EU programmes and policies (such as Invest, Erasmus+, Digital Europe, the Structural and Investment Funds, Cohesion Policy, the Connecting Europe Facility or the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism), for a wider and faster dissemination and uptake of R&I results at national and regional level.
- A single Annotated Model Grant Agreement for all EU funding programmes. The specificities of each programme are included in the annexes. It allows for greater harmonisation and standardisation of rules and terminology and the creation of synergies between programmes.
- Evaluation: continuation of the current three criteria: excellence, impact and evaluation.
- Changes in the tie-break criteria (RIA, IA and CSA). The 4 criteria in order of priority are: a) the highest score in the excellence (RIA or CSA) or impact (IA) section; the number of women leading the coordination of work tasks; the EU geographical diversity of the consortium entities (it is not specified if it is necessary to include entities from the so-called "widening" countries); the % of the total funding of the project allocated to SMEs.
- Introduction of new mechanisms for evaluation (to be introduced gradually and only for specific calls): possibility of increasing the two stage calls; "blind evaluations" where the name of the beneficiaries is not known; the inclusion of videos in the proposal phase (EIC); hearings in the evaluation phase; or the possibility that the participants can react to the preliminary comments of their evaluation (time to react).
Structure
Impact-oriented implementation
Strategic Planning. The intermediary instrument known as 'Strategic Planning' has been created to respond to EU policies and promote a greater impact of the programme. It is multiannual (the first covers the period 2021-2024) and defines the EU key strategic orientations in research and innovation (KSO) and their expected impacts. Based on this strategic document, the biennial work programmes (WP) and the annual calls (Calls) are elaborated. The WP are structured around blocks of actions called "destinations" that are implemented through the calls (called by some topics).
Font : Comissió Europea
- A clearer and more specific specification of the expected impacts (economic, scientific, environmental and social) in the drafting of the WP and the establishment of more defined and precise evaluation criteria. In specific programmes such as the Missions and the EIC, the EC will design an evaluation process so that the selection of the proposal leads to a coherent portfolio of projects.
- Two online platforms (Horizon Results Platform and The EU Innovation Radar Platform) have been created to encourage and stimulate programme participants to continue to report on dissemination and exploitation activities beyond the life of the project. External entities can exploit the results of the projects, allowing the authors to retain ownership of the rights and setting the conditions of use.