On 11 December 2025, the European Commission formally adopted the main Horizon Europe Work Programme for 2026-2027, the final two-year programming cycle of the current 2021-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework. The programme makes roughly EUR 14 billion available for research and innovation calls opening across 2026 and 2027, and it is the version of Horizon Europe that institutions, research offices, and individual applicants will be working against for the rest of the framework’s life. Two themes stand out from the Commission’s own framing of the programme: a reinforced push on knowledge valorisation (turning research results into market, policy, and societal uptake) and a continued, quantified climate-spending target.
This piece covers what actually changed in the adopted programme. For the funding-rate and competitiveness picture under the programme generally, see CASRAI’s Horizon Europe Success Rates guide, which tracks success rates by pillar and call type and is not superseded by this adoption — the 2026-2027 programme’s own success rates will only be observable once calls close.
What was adopted, and when
The Commission adopted the Work Programme 2026-2027 on 11 December 2025, confirmed directly on the European Commission’s climate policy news page, with companion announcements the following day from the Commission’s implementing agencies, including the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) and the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Consistent with the phased Horizon Europe practice used since 2021, individual cluster and pillar annexes (Cluster 1 Health, Cluster 4 Digital Industry and Space, the Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area (WIDERA) programme, and others) were published as separate documents on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal alongside the main adoption, each with its own call topics, deadlines, and budget lines.
The headline figure across the Commission’s own communications is a consistent EUR 14 billion for the two-year period. That is the number to use going forward for this programming cycle — earlier secondary estimates in the EUR 14-15 billion range should be read as pre-adoption approximation now superseded by the confirmed figure.
Where the money is going: illustrative budget lines
Beyond the topline EUR 14 billion, the Commission’s own communications and REA’s summary called out several specific allocations for 2026-2027, including: EUR 50 million for research careers and talent attraction under the “Choose Europe for Science” initiative; EUR 50 million for transnational access to research infrastructures and related training; EUR 676.4 million for environment, agriculture, and food systems research; EUR 131 million for civil security research; and EUR 298.5 million for culture and an inclusive society. These are illustrative of the programme’s breadth rather than an exhaustive budget table — research offices tracking a specific cluster or destination should still consult that cluster’s own work programme annex on the Funding & Tenders Portal for the authoritative topic-level budget.
Knowledge valorisation as a named priority
Knowledge valorisation — the process of turning research results into economic, societal, or policy value through commercialisation, licensing, spin-outs, and industry uptake — is explicitly promoted as a European Research Area (ERA) priority within the 2026-2027 programme, alongside responsible AI use and support for SMEs and start-ups. The Commission’s Knowledge Valorisation Platform materials put the figure at over EUR 870 million allocated across valorisation-focused topics in the 2026-2027 programme, concentrated particularly in Cluster 4 (Digital, Industry and Space) and in WIDERA.
Concretely, this shows up as specific call topics rather than a single valorisation budget line: “proof of market” topics aimed at helping small consortia of spin-offs, start-ups, and SMEs assess the commercial exploitation potential of Horizon-generated results; topics supporting industry-academia knowledge exchange in the social sciences and humanities; and topics aimed at helping research organisations unlock the value of academic intellectual assets for industry, SME, and start-up use. For institutions with a technology-transfer office, this is the most operationally relevant thread of the 2026-2027 programme — it sits squarely alongside the exploitation obligations already built into the Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement (the Plan for the Dissemination and Exploitation of results including Communication activities, or PDEC, which every beneficiary already has to maintain under Article 39‘s open-access and data-management framework).
The climate target: 35% and counting
Horizon Europe has carried a minimum climate-spending target since the framework regulation was adopted in 2021, and the Commission’s own figures for 2026-2027 confirm the programme continues to meet and quantify it: at least 35% of the EUR 14 billion — an estimated EUR 4.9 billion — is earmarked for activities contributing to the EU’s climate goals, spread across relevant clusters and the EU Missions (including the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and Climate Adaptation missions). This is not a new target for 2026-2027; what is notable is that the Commission continues to report against it explicitly at each work-programme adoption, giving research offices a stable, citable figure for climate-relevant proposal framing across the remaining life of the framework.
Simplification: shorter documents, more lump-sum funding
Alongside the thematic priorities, the Commission has continued the simplification push it began in earlier Horizon Europe cycles. Two changes are worth flagging for anyone preparing a 2026 or 2027 proposal: the work programme documents themselves are shorter and more streamlined than the 2023-2024 edition, and lump-sum funding — fixed, deliverable-triggered payments per work package rather than actual-cost reimbursement — now covers roughly half of the calls in the 2026-2027 programme, continuing a shift that has been underway since 2024. Applicants used to actual-cost reporting under earlier Horizon Europe calls should check, call by call, whether their target topic uses the lump-sum model, since it changes both budgeting at proposal stage and financial reporting obligations after award.
What this means for research administrators
None of the adoption changes the underlying Horizon Europe legal and compliance architecture that CASRAI has already documented in detail: the Article 7 Gender Equality Plan eligibility criterion, the Article 39 open-access and FAIR data obligations, and the general grant-management mechanics covered in CASRAI’s Horizon Europe and EU Research Funding overview and Horizon Europe FAIR Data Management Plan guide all continue to apply unchanged under the new programme. What changes is where the money is concentrated (valorisation and climate-relevant topics carry more explicit weight this cycle) and some of the mechanics around funding model and evaluation. Research offices comparing Horizon Europe against other major funding routes, including UK options post-association, may also find CASRAI’s UKRI vs. ERC comparison useful context, since the European Research Council’s own calls are funded from within the wider Horizon Europe budget this Work Programme covers.
As with every work-programme cycle, the authoritative source for a specific call’s deadline, budget, and eligibility conditions is that call’s own entry on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, not this summary or any other secondary account of the adoption — treat this piece as an orientation to what changed at the programme level, not a substitute for the call text.
