Horizon Europe – the new EU’s funding programme for research and innovation (FP9)
Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation for 2021-2027. After more than three years of negotiations, it has finally been approved by the European Parliament on 27th April 2021. The approved budget amounts to € 95,5 billion in current prices.
The main aims of the programme are to strengthen science and technology, to foster industrial competitiveness, and to implement the sustainable development goals within the EU.
The programme is based on three complementary and interconnected pillars:
- Excellent science: supports excellent basic science. It strengthens the Union’s scientific leadership and will develop high-quality knowledge and skills.
- Global challenges and European industrial competitiveness: supports research which addresses societal challenges and industrial technologies. This pillar is divided into 6 thematic sub-budgets called Clusters that address the following areas : Health (Cluster 1), Culture, Creativity & Inclusive Society (Cluster 2), Civil Security for Society (Cluster 3), Digital, Industry & Space (Cluster 4), Climate, Energy & Mobility (Cluster 5), Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment (Cluster 6).
- Innovative Europe: focuses on scaling up breakthrough and disruptive innovation by establishing a European Innovation Council. The latter will offer a one-stop-shop for high-potential innovators.
Horizon Europe also introduces new features such as the European Innovation Council, missions to promote research results, open science policy to have an open access to publications and new forms of partnerships.
In addition to the three pillars, a horizontal section improves the programme’s delivery for widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area (ERA) and includes measures to support Member States in making the most of their national research and innovation potential.
The Work Programmes for 2023-2024 were published in December 2022 with a budget of € 13,5 billion in current prices. The most relevant funding opportunities for the forest-based sector are found in three Clusters of the second Pillar:
- Cluster 4: Digital, Industry & Space
- Cluster 5: Climate, Energy & Mobility
- Cluster 6: Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment
Some other relevant calls can also be found in the Missions, a new tool introduced for Horizon Europe.
FTP has gathered all the relevant Call topics for the forest-based sector in the FTP Call Topics Manual - Horizon Europe 2023-2024.
If you are interested only in a specific sub-sector, find below targeted versions of the Call Topics Manual:
Visit the Funding & Tenders Portal to find all the official information on the Call topics.
