Horizon Europe's most ambitious research and innovation program so far

The European Commission has presented its proposal for the next Framework Program for Research and Innovation (PM) for the period 2021-2027, which will be called Horizon Europe. The new program, which builds on the achievements and successes of the previous R & I program (Horizon 2020), will keep the EU at the forefront of global research and innovation. Horizon Europe is the most ambitious research and innovation program to date.

Horizonte Europa will continue to promote scientific excellence through the European Research Council and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarships and exchanges, but it will also bring with it a series of novelties:

A European Innovation Council that helps the EU to be at the forefront of market-creating innovation: the Commission's proposal implies the creation of a single window to bring cutting-edge, high-potential and more promising technologies from the laboratory to the commercial application, and that it helps both the established companies and the most innovative emerging companies to develop their ideas. The new European Innovation Council will help to find and finance high-risk innovations that are rapidly evolving and have a strong potential to create new markets. It will provide support to innovators directly through two main financing instruments, one for the first stages and another for the development and implementation in the market. The European Innovation Council will complement the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

New research and innovation missions at EU level focused on social challenges and industrial competitiveness: within the framework of Horizon Europe, the Commission will launch new missions with ambitious and daring goals and a marked European added value to face to the problems that affect our daily life. They can go, for example, from the fight against cancer to clean transport or oceans without plastic. These missions will be designed in collaboration with citizens, stakeholders, the European Parliament and the Member States.

Maximize the potential for innovation across the EU: support will be redoubled for those Member States that are lagging behind in their efforts to make the most of their research and innovation potential. In addition, the new synergies with the Structural and Cohesion Funds will make it easier to coordinate and combine funding and will help regions to join innovation.

Greater openness: the principle of "open science", which requires open access to publications and data, will be the modus operandi of Horizon Europe. This will not only favor the market penetration of the results obtained thanks to EU funding, but will also provide them with greater innovation potential.

A new generation of European partnerships and more collaboration with other EU programs: Horizon Europe will rationalize the number of partnerships that the EU programs or funds together with partners such as industry, civil society and funding agencies to increase their effectiveness and its impact in terms of fulfilling the political priorities of the Union. Horizon Europe will promote effective and functional links with other future EU programs, such as cohesion policy, the European Defense Fund, the Digital Europe Program or the Connecting Europe Facility, as well as with the international ITER fusion energy project .

Like the current MP, Horizon Europe will have a three-pillar structure:

Pillar I. Open science, which will have 25,800 million euros.
Pillar II. Global challenges and industrial competitiveness, with 52,700 million euros. It will provide an intersectoral approach to research and innovation activities through five clusters:
Health, € 7,700 Mill.
Inclusive and safe societies, 2,800 Mill. €.
Digital and industry, 15,000 Mill. €.
Climate, energy and mobility, € 15,000 Million.
Food and natural resources, 10,000 Mill. €.
Pillar III. Open innovation, with 13,500 million euros.

These three pillars are complemented by horizontal activities under the section of Strengthening the European Research Area, which will have 2,100 Million € to optimize the strengths and potential for a more innovative Europe.

Approximately two-thirds of the economic growth registered in Europe in recent decades has been the result of innovation. Horizon Europe is expected to generate new knowledge and technologies, and in greater numbers, for the sake of scientific excellence, and to have positive effects on growth, trade and investment, as well as considerable effects on society and the environment. . Each euro invested in the program can generate a return of up to eleven euros of GDP over a period of twenty-five years. It is expected that the Union's investments in R & I will lead to the direct creation of up to 100 000 new jobs in R & I-related activities during the "investment phase" (2021-2027).