The Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 will come to an end in 2020. In June 2018 the European Commission presented the proposal for the new European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation for the period 2021-2027, Horizon Europe.
The proposed allocation of funds amounts to € 100 billion and makes Horizon Europe the most ambitious of the framework programmes adopted so far by the European Commission.
Objectives and new features. Horizon Europe has three fundamental objectives: to strengthen the EU's scientific and technological bases, improve innovation capacity, competitiveness and employment in Europe, achieve priority objectives for citizens and support our socio-economic model and values.
Compared to Horizon 2020, the innovative elements can be summarized as follows:
- European Innovation Council, to support pioneering innovations
- R&I missions, to exert a greater impact through mission orientation and community involvement
- Possibility of extended associations, to strengthen international cooperation
- Open science policy, to strengthen openness
- New approach to partnerships, to rationalize the funding situation
The new framework programme will therefore be inspired by a new organizational principle based on missions, an approach that is aimed at pursuing defined objectives, with specific targets to be reached within well-defined time limits. The European Commission thus aims to facilitate the visibility of European funding for research and innovation (R&I) among its citizens and to maximize the impact of investments.
The structure proposed for Horizon Europe includes three pillars (open science, global challenges and industrial competitiveness, open innovation) and a specific programme: to consolidate the European research area.
Timeline. After the presentation of the program by the European Commission on 7 June 2018, the Council and the European Parliament approved the proposal on 30 November 2018 and 17 April 2019 respectively. Negotiations between the EU institutions will continue in the first months of the next parliamentary term with the new Commission and the new Parliament as protagonists, in view of the launch of Horizon Europe on 1st January 2021.
Info. Horizon Europe and Obiettivo FP9 by the Italian Agency for the Promotion of European Research (APRE) websites. Consult also Horizon Europe Fact Sheet.
