The UK has rejoined the EU’s flagship research scheme, Horizon ending three years of uncertainty. Associate membership had been agreed as part of the Brexit trade deal when the UK formally left the EU in 2020. However, the UK has been excluded from the scheme for the past three years because of a disagreement over the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Windsor Framework paved the way for renewed association and the UK agreed a deal to associate to Horizon Europe on 7th September 2023.
Horizon Europe is EC’s flagship programme for research and innovation. It has a budget of €95.5 billion and runs until 2027. It covers 3 Pillars;
Pillar 1 focuses on Science Excellence
Pillar 2 (the largest share of the budget €52.7b) focusses on technologies to solve global challenges and consists of 6 clusters
Digital, Industry and Space (€15.3 billion)
Climate, Energy and Mobility (€15 billion)
Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment (€9 billion)
Health (€8.2 billion)
Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society (€2.3 billion)
Civil Security for Society (€1.6 billion)
Each cluster in Pillar 2 has specific call topics defined in the Work Programme of Horizon Europe. The Pillar supports cross-European collaborative research and innovation projects, where both industry and academia can be involved.
Pillar 3 (total budget €13.5b) focuses on driving innovation in SMEs to support their scale up. Apart from EEI (innovation) and EIT collaborative research (industry, research and education) calls, the main focus for SMES is the European Innovation Council (EIC) three programmes:
(i) EIC Accelerator – supporting SMEs with innovative new ideas that could create new markets or disrupt existing ones. 70% of the project is funded up to maximum of £2.5m grant. There are various calls around specific industry areas or challenges (e.g. health and green issues) or open calls for projects.
(i) EIC Transition which supports proof of concept all the way to commercialisation reviewing the business case and business model. 100% of the project is funded up to maximum of £2.5m grant.
(iii) EIC Pathfinder that supports collaborative research, with emphasis on the specific challenges. The maximum grant is €3 million for the open call and €4 million for the challenge driven call, with 100% funding rate.
Horizon Europe publish a Work Programme every 2 years (current Work Programme 2023-24) which lists priorities and issues and specific innovation areas that will be funded. The next programme for 2025/26 will be released in Autumn 2024.
The forthcoming Calls For Proposals are accessible through the one-stop-shop Funding and Tenders Portal. When published, each Call gives more precise information on the research and innovation issues that applicants for funding should address in their proposals.
Pillar 3’s EIC release an annual programme outlining its various calls, their individual budgets and timetables. The EIC 2023 Programme listed the various open calls and specific challenge calls in 2023, totalling €1.6 billion. The EIC 2024 Programme will be released in November 2023 on the EIC website listing upcoming calls to apply to. Details on an information day on how to apply for funding and factsheets will also be released on the website.
Target the right call with the right partners
SMEs can lead an application.
The first step for those interested in applying is to identify the right call for them and note the timelines and priorities.
Sign up to the Horizon Europe/UKRI newsletter to receive updates on calls and events https://eUFunding.ukri.org/subscribe
A list of UK National Contact Points (NCPs) who offer a free service giving advice on funding opportunities, finding partners, preparing proposals, applying etc can be found at Horizon Europe funding - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
A project lead will put together a strong consortium of select partners / team members. The Funding and Tenders Portal allows applicants to search for partners (under the How to Participate pulldown menu).
City, University of London is included in the list of potential partners - a list of the various research projects City has successfully received funding for can be viewed on the Tenders Portal.
A full list of City, University of London’s 85 Research Centres for collaborative research opportunities can be found at https://www.city.ac.uk/research/centres, including Centres in the Tech space covering Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cyber Security and visualising Data.
It is recommended that SMEs register for the Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Network (IUK-KTN) newsletter at https://iuk.ktn-uk.org/ They are the main contact point for Horizon Europe calls that are most relevant to business sectors and can help find you partners.
IUK-KTN regularly regularly organise information days and events and offer some funding to participate in Horizon Europe networking events and conferences (£5k - £10k to cover expenses).