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The Horizon Europe Framework Programme

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Horizon Europe is the EU’s largest research and innovation programme for the period 2021 to 2027. The programme aims to promote the development of a competitive economy, contribute to more growth and jobs in Europe and support Europe in tackling major societal challenges.

Horizon Europe covers all steps from basic research and knowledge transfer to innovative solutions and products. Excellence in European science is a central focus of the programme. The programme’s content is directed towards important social issues such as health, sustainable development and digitalisation. The current EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation is intended to facilitate transnational project cooperation – at European level, but also worldwide.

The budget has been increased by 30% compared to the previous programme generation, meaning that €95.5 billion is available for the period 2021-2027.

Also new are the so-called missions (link), five measures to focus research and innovation on the most pressing problems of our time. For the remaining three years of the programme (2025-2027), they will be complemented by the second Strategic Plan (link), which focuses on the ecological and digital transformation. The strategic plan comprises three guidelines: (1) green transition, (2) digital transition and (3) a more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe.

The programme is divided into three main pillars; a central component of the programme is also the expansion of participation and strengthening of the European Research Area. One of the aims of this programme is to promote the competitiveness of Member States with weaker research capabilities and to strengthen the European Research Area as a whole.

The structure of Horizon Europe

This pillar includes programmes for thematically non-specified (individual) funding, such as the funding of science-driven basic research by the European Research Council (ERC), the networking of existing research infrastructures, and mobility grants for young researchers (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, MSCA).

The second pillar comprises six clusters and promotes projects that address major societal challenges:

  • Health
  • Culture, creativity and an inclusive society
  • Civil security for society
  • Digitalisation, industry and space
  • Climate, energy and mobility
  • Food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture and environment

The instruments focusing on innovation and market uptake are located in the third pillar. These are the European Innovation Council (EIC), the European Innovation Ecosystems and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Mid-term evaluation

At the 2024 mid-term, the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (DG RTD) commissioned a group of independent experts to carry out an interim evaluation of the programme (link to article on Heitor report). The report ‘Align, Act, Accelerate’, published in October 2024, aims to assess the progress of Horizon Europe and make proposals for the short and medium-term optimisation of the programme and its successor programme (FP10) and is in line with the recommendations of the reports by Enrico Letta (link to report) and Mario Draghi (link to article on Draghi report). In April and September of this year, Letta and Draghi published their reports commissioned by the Commission – two comprehensive analyses on increasing the EU’s productivity and competitiveness in the face of radical transformation processes.

Detailed information on Horizon Europe

In Germany, the EU Office of the BMBF and the EU Cooperation Office of the science organisations (KoWi) provide information and advice on applying for Horizon Europe (only available in German):

Relevant documents to the research programme:

Contact

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