Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe is the European Union’s main funding programme for research and innovation. Running from 2021 to 2027, it has a budget of around €95 billion and aims to strengthen Europe’s scientific excellence, boost industrial competitiveness, and tackle major societal challenges such as climate change, health, digital transformation, and energy transition.

At its core, Horizon Europe supports the entire journey from fundamental research to market-ready innovation. It funds universities, research organisations, companies (including startups and SMEs), public authorities, and non-profits, often working together in international consortia. The programme is not limited to pure science: it strongly emphasizes impact, meaning that funded projects are expected to contribute to real-world solutions, economic growth, and EU policy goals.

Horizon Europe is structured around three main pillars. The first pillar, Excellent Science, supports frontier research, researcher mobility, and world-class research infrastructures, including prestigious grants from the European Research Council. The second pillar, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, funds collaborative projects addressing societal challenges such as health, climate, food, mobility, and security, while also strengthening key industrial technologies. The third pillar, Innovative Europe, focuses on turning cutting-edge research into marketable innovations and includes instruments like the European Innovation Council, which runs programmes such as the EIC Accelerator.

In addition to these pillars, Horizon Europe includes horizontal actions that promote widening participation across Europe, strengthening innovation ecosystems, and supporting policy development. Most funding is allocated through competitive calls for proposals, with clear evaluation criteria based on excellence, impact, and quality of implementation.

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