Horizon Europe expands scope with additional investment
The EU Commission has allocated an additional €500mln to the programme and added two new funding calls.
The EU's flagship research and innovation programme budget for 2026-27 is now €14.8bln.
The two new calls are:
- Transformative Change Towards a Nature-Positive Economy and Society, with a budget of €237mln
- Bridging Actions 2027, with a total financing of €260mln
The Nature-Positive stream will fund 11 research and innovation actions supporting biodiversity goals.
Bridging Actions 2027 will prepare the ground for the EU's next research and innovation programme - Horizon Europe 2028-34 - and introduces the ‘innovation to investment journey' to better connect research with market deployment.
In addition, two reports are published on the strong appeal of Horizon Europe with researchers, innovators and companies.
The Horizon Europe State of Play shows that the programme has so invested €61bln in grants since its launch in 2021 and a further €1.3bln in equity in nearly 23,000 projects.
The second report titled Is Horizon Europe attractive for new participants? shows 55% of beneficiaries are newcomers to the programmes, with two-thirds being businesses.
