What is Horizon Europe? It is the European Union’s flagship research and innovation funding programme, running 2021–2027 with a budget of €95.5 billion. It succeeds Horizon 2020 as the ninth EU Framework Programme (FP9), funds work through three pillars, and requires participants to follow an open-science mandate covering open-access publishing, FAIR data management, and persistent identifiers.
For research administrators (RAs) and principal investigators (PIs) new to EU funding, understanding the programme’s structure, eligibility routes, and compliance obligations is the first step toward a fundable proposal.
What Is Horizon Europe?
Horizon Europe is the European Union’s key funding programme for research and innovation, running from 2021 to 2027 with a total budget of €95.5 billion. It is the EU’s largest research and innovation programme to date and is formally the ninth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP9), following on from Horizon 2020 (2014–2020, FP8). It funds everything from frontier basic research to near-market innovation, administered principally through the European Commission’s Funding & Tenders Portal, where calls, work programmes, and proposal templates are published.
- Duration: 2021–2027 (seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework cycle)
- Budget: €95.5 billion (European Commission, current programme figure)
- Predecessor: Horizon 2020, €77 billion, 2014–2020
- Administering body: European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
How Does Horizon Europe Differ from Horizon 2020 (FP8)?
Horizon Europe increased the overall research budget by roughly 24% over Horizon 2020 and introduced structural changes that RAs need to plan around: a stronger open-science mandate, five measurable “Missions,” a new European Innovation Council, and a widening-participation strand aimed at strengthening the European Research Area across less research-intensive member states.
| Feature | Horizon 2020 (FP8, 2014–2020) | Horizon Europe (FP9, 2021–2027) |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | €77 billion | €95.5 billion |
| Structure | Three priorities | Three pillars + widening participation strand |
| Missions | Not used | Five thematic Missions with 2030 targets |
| Innovation body | No dedicated council | European Innovation Council (EIC), Pillar III |
| Open access | Encouraged, embargoes permitted | Mandatory, immediate open access under the Model Grant Agreement |
| UK status | Full EU member state | Associated country (from 1 January 2024) |
What Are Horizon Europe’s Three Pillars?
Horizon Europe organises its budget into three pillars, each supporting a different stage of the research-to-innovation pipeline, plus a horizontal strand for widening participation.
- Pillar I — Excellent Science: funds frontier research through the European Research Council (ERC), researcher mobility and training through Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), and shared research infrastructures.
- Pillar II — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness: the largest pillar, organised into six clusters — Health; Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society; Civil Security for Society; Digital, Industry and Space; Climate, Energy and Mobility; and Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment. This pillar also houses the five Missions and the Joint Research Centre’s scientific support.
- Pillar III — Innovative Europe: supports market-creating innovation through the European Innovation Council (EIC), European innovation ecosystems, and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
Pillar II’s five Missions set time-bound 2030 targets: climate-change adaptation for at least 150 regions, improving outcomes for 3 million people affected by cancer, restoring ocean and water health, delivering 100 climate-neutral and smart cities, and a “Soil Deal for Europe” spanning 100 living labs.
Who Can Apply for Horizon Europe? (Including UK Status)
Eligibility depends on an applicant’s country status rather than institution type. Universities, research organisations, businesses (including SMEs), and public bodies are all eligible legal-entity types, but where they are established determines whether they can lead a proposal or receive direct EU funding.
| Route | Who it covers | Funding access |
|---|---|---|
| EU member state | All 27 member states | Full, automatic eligibility for all calls |
| Associated country | Non-EU states that pay into the Horizon Europe budget, e.g. Norway, Iceland, Israel, South Korea (associated January 2025), Switzerland (re-associated 10 November 2025), and the UK | Same rights and obligations as member states, for the associated scope |
| Non-associated third country (funded) | Low- and middle-income countries eligible under specific Horizon Europe rules | Automatic EU funding for named calls |
| Non-associated third country (self-funded) | All other third countries | Can join consortia but must generally self-fund participation |
The UK associated to Horizon Europe on 1 January 2024, following a political agreement signed with the European Commission on 7 September 2023. UK-based researchers and organisations can lead consortia and receive Horizon Europe funding directly from the European Commission, with the sole exception of the EIC Fund’s equity component. UKRI confirms that Work Programme 2024 calls onward are covered by full association, following an earlier guarantee scheme that had already committed over £1 billion to successful UK applicants for 2021–2023 calls.
Most Pillar II collaborative projects require a consortium of at least three independent legal entities established in three different EU member states or associated countries. ERC and MSCA awards under Pillar I, by contrast, can be held by a single host institution or researcher.
What Does Horizon Europe’s Open Science Mandate Require?
Horizon Europe’s Model Grant Agreement makes open science a contractual obligation, not a recommendation. Every funded project must provide immediate open access to peer-reviewed publications, and any project that generates or collects research data must submit a Data Management Plan (DMP) following the FAIR principles — Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable — under the “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” default.
This is where interoperable identifiers stop being optional infrastructure and become compliance requirements. Consortium partners reporting jointly to the European Commission need consistent, machine-readable ways to identify people, organisations, and contributions across every partner institution’s systems:
- ORCID iDs give researchers a persistent, disambiguated identifier that consortium partners and the Funding & Tenders Portal can rely on for reporting and attribution.
- FAIR data management, as required by the DMP, depends on standardised metadata schemas so that datasets remain findable and reusable after a project closes.
- Contributor role taxonomies such as CRediT give multi-partner consortia a consistent, non-hierarchical way to record who did what on a publication, which matters when authorship spans institutions with different local conventions.
CASRAI originated the CRediT contributor role taxonomy in 2014. The standard is now stewarded by NISO as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. For Horizon Europe consortia, pairing CRediT contributor roles with ORCID identifiers and FAIR-compliant data management is what makes multi-partner reporting interoperable rather than a spreadsheet reconciled by hand at the end of each reporting period.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Horizon Europe do?
Horizon Europe funds research and innovation projects across the EU and associated countries, tackling scientific, societal, and industrial goals. It supports everything from curiosity-driven basic science to near-market innovation and helps deliver commitments such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and EU climate targets.
Who is eligible for Horizon Europe?
Horizon Europe is open to legal entities — individuals, universities, businesses, and public bodies — established in an EU member state or a country formally associated with the programme. Entities from non-associated countries can often still participate in consortia, but funding eligibility depends on their specific country’s status.
Is the UK a member of Horizon Europe?
The UK is not an EU member but is a fully associated country to Horizon Europe as of 1 January 2024. UK researchers and institutions can lead projects and receive EU funding directly, with the single exception of the EIC Fund’s equity investment component.
Who runs Horizon Europe?
Horizon Europe is administered by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, working with executive agencies such as the European Research Council Executive Agency and the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, which manage day-to-day calls and grant agreements.
What This Means for Research Administrators
For RAs supporting a first Horizon Europe application, three things matter most: confirm country-status eligibility before drafting a consortium agreement, budget time for a compliant Data Management Plan rather than treating it as boilerplate, and set up ORCID and contributor-role tracking for every named researcher before the project starts, not retrospectively at reporting time.
As the programme moves toward its 2028–2034 successor framework, currently under negotiation, the compliance burden around open science is unlikely to loosen. Institutions that treat FAIR data, persistent identifiers, and structured contributor attribution as core research-administration infrastructure — rather than a publisher-side afterthought — will find Horizon Europe reporting considerably easier to manage. For broader context, see CASRAI’s research administration resources.
