WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON?

The year 2021 brought with it the dawn of the UK’s new relationship with Europe, and for researchers that meant the commencement of Horizon Europe.

The Horizon Europe framework programme is the European Commission’s (EC’s) main mechanism for funding research and innovation. The seven-year programme will run from 2021 to 2027, offering grants through investigator-led and challenge-driven calls. It has a budget of €95.5 billion, which is almost €20 billion more than its predecessor. With a focus on tackling challenges such as climate change, helping to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosting competitiveness and growth, the programme is keen to achieve some big goals.

“Following our extraordinary success with the Horizon 2020 programme, the University of Southampton is excited and already engaging fully with Horizon Europe and all the opportunities it will bring for our researchers,” explained Emma Winnell, newly appointed EU Research Funding Manager in Research and Innovation Services.

“Horizon Europe is an evolved Horizon 2020, rather than a different programme completely, which sets us in good stead with all our previous EU funding knowledge,” Emma added.

How it works As part of the UK-EU trade agreement, the UK has formally associated to Horizon Europe. This association will give UK researchers, scientists, and businesses access to funding under the programme on equivalent terms to organisations in EU countries.

Emma explained the importance of formal association: “Association means that the UK will be able to participate in collaborative calls and monobeneficiary schemes such as European Research Council grants and Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowships.

“Previously when working with the Horizon 2020 programme, we were very successful in these funding calls and some fantastic research projects were delivered, hence why we are so pleased to be engaging fully with Horizon Europe.” Phil Holliday, European Advisor at the UK Research Office (UKRO) in Brussels, with his team, supports the UK’s involvement in Horizon Europe. He said: “Horizon Europe brings exciting new opportunities and new ways of working as researchers and innovators unite across Europe. It is a huge opportunity for the UK to renew and expand its research and innovation connections in the EU and beyond, and to benefit from funding, cross-border networks, supply chains for new products and access to global talent.

“Our ambition at UKRO is that UK researchers and innovators participate in Horizon Europe to the maximum extent, and that collaboration across Europe flourishes and grows. This will benefit not only researchers and innovators, but also the whole country, by helping to build a thriving, inclusive research and innovation system that tackles the challenges facing our world today.”

HOW CAN YOU AS A RESEARCHER PREPARE FOR PARTICIPATION IN HORIZON EUROPE?

• Familiarise yourself with the information and resources available on the European Funding SharePoint site. This includes dedicated pages on each part of Horizon Europe including the Work Programmes and Work Programme summaries, events, briefing notes, National ContactPoint details etc.

• Contact your colleagues in Europe to confirm that the UK has associated to Horizon Europe and that you would be interested to joining or forming consortia.

• Sign up to upcoming online events to find out more about Horizon Europe. As well as the events being run within the University, UKRO will be running lots of webinars over the coming months covering many aspects of Horizon Europe.

• If you need to build or grow your network in Europe, you may be interested in European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) actions.

• UKRO maintains a factsheet on the UK’s participation in EU-funded programmes that you can share with colleagues across Europe.

The programme is structured into three pillars.

Pillar 1: Excellent Science supports frontier research projects designed and driven by researchers through European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and invests in world-class research infrastructures.

Pillar 2: Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness supports research into societal challenges and reinforces technological and industrial capacities. The six Cluster Work Programmes contain targeted collaborative call topics with expected impacts or ‘destinations’ that need to be addressed by funded projects. The work programmes are:

• Health • Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society • Civil Security for Society • Digital, Industry and Space • Climate, Energy and Mobility • Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment.

Horizon Europe also sees the introduction of five ‘missions’, which aim to address the greatest challenges facing society with clear, time bound and measurable objectives. The five missions are: cancer; adaption to climate change including societal transformation; healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters; climate-neutral and smart cities; and soil health and food.

Pillar 3: Innovative Europe focuses on stimulating and supporting market-creating breakthrough innovations. “The structure won’t look unfamiliar to anyone who engaged with Horizon 2020,” explained Emma. “There are some other elements to the programme which are new. These include the European Innovation Council which will provide support for breakthrough innovations of a disruptive nature and with scale-up potential that may be too risky for private investors. There are the five new missions mentioned above to achieve bold, inspirational and measurable goals within a set timeframe. There is an open science policy which dictates mandatory open access to publications and open science principles are applied throughout the programme. And lastly there is a new approach to partnerships which is objectivedriven with more ambitious partnerships with industry in support of EU policy objectives.”

Looking ahead

Emma and her team are running a series of events promoting Horizon Europe opportunities. Emma said: “Our programme of training and events aims to help anyone on their Horizon Europe funding journey – from the Beginner’s Guide to Horizon Europe session, which offers an overview of the framework programme for the completely uninitiated, to scheme-specific sessions such as Meet the ERC Advanced Grant Fellow which give insights, hints and tips from prior awardees at Southampton. We will also be running a series of Faculty-focused events which will provide an opportunity to gain a more discipline-specific take on the funding opportunities available.”

If you have any questions about Horizon Europe, please contact funding@soton.ac.uk

YOUR EU FUNDING TEAM

Emma Winnell

Research Funding Manager. Emma provides expert research funding advice, project manages the development and submission of large strategically important bids and develops strategies that enhance our access to, and success in, Horizon Europe funding.

Jo Lancaster

Research Funding Officer. Jo provides expert advice and information on Horizon Europe calls, with a particular focus on supporting applicants to the monobeneficiary schemes – the ERC grants and Marie Skłodowska Curie postdoctoral fellowships.

KEY FUNDING INSTRUMENTS

ERC grants and Marie Skłodowska-

Curie fellowships are awards for the most promising individual researchers with ground-breaking, novel research ideas to be hosted at universities in Europe.

Research and Innovation Action (RIA)

and Innovation Actions (IA) call topics in pillars 2 and 3 are collaborative and usually require at least three different parties from three different EU Member States or Associated Countries in order to address the research problems across Europe.

Coordination and Support Actions

(CSA) fund actions that support research. They usually only require a minimum of one party from one EU Member State or Associated Country.