EP & Council Reach Political Agreement Over Horizon Europe Program Worth €95.5 Billion

The European Parliament and the Council have reached a political agreement on the Horizon Europe program worth over €95.5 billion for the period 2021-2027, which is the largest transnational program to support research and innovation.

The funding includes €5.4 billion in current prices from NextGenerationEU in order to boost recovery and strengthen the EU for the future, and also an extra amount of €4.5 billion in current prices as reinforcement, Erudera reports.

The European Commission has welcomed the political deal reached between the Parliament and the Council.

The Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, said that this agreement represents a very important milestone for Europe, claiming that with the Horizon Europe program, the European research community, organizations, as well as citizens, can count on the largest research and innovation program in the world.

“It is our main tool to strengthen our scientific and technological base, develop solutions for healthier living, drive digital transformation and fight climate change, for our collective resilience,” she added.

Whereas, the German Federal Minister of Education and Research, Anja Karliczek, said that the new framework program for research and innovation for the next seven years provides a strong indicator by the European Union for “a competitive and forward-looking Europe.”

“It is clear that we will only be able to overcome the major challenges of our time, such as the COVID-19 crisis and climate change, as a community and with the combined efforts of all the member states. It is thus all the more important that the Horizon Europe programme can start as soon as possible,” she said.

Compared to the actual research and innovation program, the budget for the Horizon 2020 represents a 30 per cent increase.

What Does the Program Include?

The program will offer valuable support to researchers and innovators to drive the systemic changes which are needed in order to secure a green, healthy and resilient Europe.

“It will drive scientific excellence through the European Research Council (ERC) to enable our most excellent researchers to push the frontiers of knowledge to tackle our economic and social challenges,” a European Commission press release reads.

The program will also drive scientific excellence through the European Research Council (ERC) to allow most outstanding researchers to push the frontiers of knowledge and address economic and social challenges.

In addition to the abovementioned, the program will focus on the following:

• Assist best talents and young researchers to expand their knowledge and skills through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships and exchanges.
• Benefit Europe from scientific advice, technical support as well as Joint Research Centre (JRC) research.
• Support cooperative research related to the societal challenges of the EU.
• Reinforce technological and industrial capacities through thematic clusters which tackle the full spectrum of global challenges.
• Boost participation, reduce the R&I gap and reinforce the European Research Area (ERA) through an extensive spectrum of actions to support lower R&I performing countries.
• Announce new features such as the European Innovation Council (EIC).
• Work closely with other EU programs and policies such as Erasmus +, EU Cohesion Policy, Digital Europe, European Structural and Investment Funds, Connecting Europe Facility, as well as the Recovery and Resilience Facility in order to increase the impact.
• Encourage faster distribution at the national and regional level.

In June 2018, the Commission proposed the Horizon Europe regulation. The latter establishes the framework program for research and innovation for the period 2021-2027.

The European Parliament and the Council agreed over a provisional agreement on the Erasmus + program for the 2021-2027 period with a planned budget of €24.57 billion in current prices and the additional amount of €1.7 billion in 2018 prices.