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HORIZON EUROPE 2021-2027

Investing in research and innovation is investing in Europe’s future. It helps us to compete globally and preserve our unique social model. It improves the daily lives of millions of people here in Europe and around the world, helping to solve some of our biggest societal challenges. Building on the achievements and success of the EU’s past flagship research and innovation programmes, the Commission proposes a budget of €100 billion for 2021-2027 for Horizon Europe and the Euratom Research and Training Programme.

THE MAIN FEATURES OF HORIZON EUROPE

Horizon Europe is proposed as the most ambitious research and innovation funding programme ever. It will continue to drive Europe’s scientific excellence through the European Research Council and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships and exchanges and draw on the scientific advice, technical support and dedicated research of the Joint Research Centre (JRC). And it will add a new level of ambition and boost the scientific, economic and societal impact of EU funding.


  • Strengthen EU science and technology thanks to increased investment in highly skilled people and cutting-edge research;

  • Foster the EU’s industrial competitiveness and its innovation performance, notably supporting market-creating innovation via the European Innovation Council and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology;

  • Deliver on the EU’s strategic priorities, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change, and tackle global challenges that affect the quality of our daily lives.

WHAT'S NEW?

  • The European Innovation Council: one-stop shop to bring the most promising ideas from lab to real world application and support the most innovative start-ups and companies to scale up their ideas. It will provide direct support to innovators through two main funding instruments, one for early stages and the other for development and market deployment.

  • EU-wide R&I missions: ambitious, bold goals to tackle issues that affect our daily lives. Examples could range from the fight against cancer, to clean transport or plastic-free oceans. They will be co-designed with citizens, stakeholders, the European Parliament and Member States.

  • Open Science will become the modus operandi of Horizon Europe. It will go beyond the open access policy of Horizon 2020 and require open access to publications, data, and to research data management plans.

  • A new generation of European Partnerships: Horizon Europe will streamline the number of partnerships that the EU co-programmes or co-funds with partners like industry, civil society and funding foundations.

  • Simpler rules: This will increase legal certainty and reduce administrative burden for beneficiaries and programme administrators.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION & IMPORTANT LINKS

The Commission's proposal for Horizon Europe

  • The Commission has published its proposal for Horizon Europe, an ambitious €100 billion research and innovation programme that will succeed Horizon 2020.

  • The proposal was made as part of the EU's proposal for the next EU long-term budget, the multiannual financial framework (MFF).

  • Various building blocks were taken into account including the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020, the Lab-Fab-App report (informally the Lamy report), foresight studies and various other reports. 

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Legal texts, factsheets and video


Pursuing a mission-oriented policy approach

  • Horizon Europe will incorporate policy missions to ensure the effectiveness of research and innovation funding by pursuing clearly defined targets. 

  • The Commission has engaged policy experts to develop studies, case studies and reports on how a mission-oriented policy approach will work.

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Read more about the Commission's mission-oriented approach and download the studies


Reports and materials that shaped the proposal - Evaluating Horizon 2020

To make an effective proposal, the Commission built on what has been learned from Horizon 2020.

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Mission-oriented policy

More studies and reports on missions


Foresight scenarios 

BOHEMIA  is an extensive, systematic, multi-year study that set out various future scenarios and recommendations for research and innovation policy.


Economic rationale 

Analysis to set out the economic rationale for public R&Iinvestments and their impact on growth and jobs carried out by the Commission.


Involving citizens in setting priorities for the next framework programme

Report by the Democratic Society on involving citizens in the next framework programme


Report of the high level group on the European Innovation Council

Europe is back: Accelerating breakthrough innovation recommendations on how a European Innovation Council (EIC) should be set up to fund and nurture breakthrough innovation.


Public input to the proposal


Adoption timeline

  • 2 May 2018 the Commission adopts its proposal for the next EU long-term budget (MFF)

  • 7 June 2018 the Commission adopts its proposal for Horizon Europe

  • the Council and European Parliament negotiate and subsequently adopt the programme

  • Horizon Europe is launched on 1 January 2021

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Related links

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