Horizon Europe
Horizon Europe, is the Framework Programme from the European Commission. It will run from 2021-2027, with a total budget of €95.5 billion. On this page you will find an overview of Horizon Europe. If you have any questions about applying for a specific call or subprogramme, please contact us.
Page contents:
- What is Horizon Europe?
- Horizon Europe Structure
- Pillar 1: Excellent Science
- Pillar 2: Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
- Pillar 3: Innovative Europe
- Horizontal Focus: Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
- Horizon Europe Missions: Mission-driven Research
- Horizon Europe FAQs
- About Horizon Europe Blind Evaluation
- Horizon Europe Success Stories: Cases
- Download the Horizon Europe guide
- Key European Commission Horizon Europe Work Programme pages
What is Horizon Europe?
In 2021, the Horizon Europe programme succeeded Horizon 2020. It commenced with a budget of €95.5 billion to invest in innovative projects that contribute towards a fair and prosperous future for people and planet, based on EuropeanValues. To achieve this, Horizon Europe will strengthen the connection between scientific and technological innovation, while tackling key societal challenges set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. The goal is to increase European leadership in innovation and entrepreneurship, through world-class research. Additionally, it removes barriers to development and enables public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovations.
The structure of Horizon Europe
The preliminary structure of the new programme is divided over 3 Pillars and 1 Horizontal Focus area:
Pillar 1: Excellent Science
Aiming to improve and enable excellent scientific research in Europe.
Components of this programme include:
European Research Council:
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- Funding frontier research designed and driven by the best researchers in Europe. The 2026 ERC work programme has been published.
- Total budget, 2026: €2.7 billion
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Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions:
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- Funding fellowships and mobility of researchers. Deadlines for the MSCA programme in 2026 have been published.
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Research Infrastructures:
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- Funding new world-class research infrastructures.
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Pillar 2: Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Focusing on funding research addressing societal challenges, reinforcing technological and industrial capacities. Furthermore, this pillar aims to set and reach European goals concerning the biggest challenges (climate change, health clean energy and digital). Within this pillar partnerships of European countries, industry and stakeholders will be funded to perform joint R&D activities.
Clusters of Pillar 2:
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Health.
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Culture, Creativity, and Inclusive Society
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Civil security for society
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Digital, Industry and Space
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Climate, Energy and Mobility
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Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
- Joint Research Centre: supporting policymakers, both European and national, with independent scientific evidence and support.
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Pillar 3: Innovative Europe aims to improve SME growth and the European innovation landscape.
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European Innovation Council (EIC):
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- Focus on market-creating innovation and SME growth. The EIC 2026 work programme has been published, and includes the EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition and EIC Accelerator.
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European Innovation Ecosystems:
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- Connecting with regional and national innovation actors.
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European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
- Focusing on integrating research, higher education, business and entrepreneurship.
- Budget: €3B 2021-2027
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Horizontal focus: Widening Participation and strengthening the European research area
The horizontal pillar will place focus on Widening Participation throughout the entire Horizon Europe programme and across the entire continent, particularly improving the participation of low R&I performing Member States in Horizon Europe. This pillar is expected to include programmes like: Teaming, Twinning, Cost and ERA Chairs.
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- Deadlines: refer to, Horizon Europe WP 11 Widening Participation and strengthening the European research area 2023, for full list of deadlines.
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Horizon Europe Missions: Mission-driven Research
The Horizon Europe programme also aims to implement mission-driven research focusing on five different missions across five mission areas. A mission is a set of actions across multiple disciplines with the aim of reaching a bold and inspirational goal with high impact on society, within a pre-set timeframe. It is expected that these missions will be addressed within the Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness pillar.
Below we present the five mission-areas with the proposed Horizon Europe missions:
Mission Area: Cancer
Proposed Mission: ‘Conquering Cancer: Mission Possible’
About this mission: Through specific complimentary actions, the EU aims to save over 3 million lives and ensure that more people live longer and better by 2030. To reach this ambitious target, the EU has identified five areas of action under the Conquering Cancer: Mission Possible mission.
Deadline: TBA
Mission Area: Climate-neutral and smart cities
Proposed Mission: ‘100 Climate-neutral Cities by 2030 – by and for the Citizens’
About this mission: With the Mission ‘Green Cities’, the European Commission aims to exploit the cities’ access to capital, know-hows, and economies of scale for the development to pilot and scale up green innovations. 100 European cities will be selected and supported in their transformation towards complete climate neutrality by 2030.
Proposal deadlines: TBA
Mission Area: Healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters
Proposed Mission: ‘Mission Starfish 2030: Restore our Ocean and Waters’
About this mission: With Mission Starfish 2030, the European Commission (EC) targets the most imminent threats to healthy oceans and waters: an unsustainable human footprint; climate change; lack of understanding, connection, and investment; and inadequate governance. Five objectives are defined, each with their own concrete and measurable targets set for 2030, and associated checkpoints for this year.
Proposal deadline: TBA
Mission Area: Soil health and food
Proposed Mission: ‘Caring for Soil is Caring for Life’
About this mission: The proposed mission aims to give recognition to the soil as an invaluable resource, and put Europe on a trajectory towards sustainable land and soil management, as part of a wider, green transition. The aim is that by 2030, at least 75% of soils in each EU Member State will be healthy, or show a significant improvement towards meeting accepted thresholds of indicators, to support ecosystem services.
Proposal deadline: TBA
Mission Area: Adaptation to climate change including societal transformation
Proposed Mission: ‘A Climate Resilient Europe’
About this mission: The proposed mission aims to turn the urgent challenge of adapting to climate change into an opportunity to make Europe resilient, climate-prepared and fair. By 2030, the Mission will: 1. Prepare Europe to deal with climate disruptions; 2. Accelerate the transformation to a climate-resilient future; 3. Build deep resilience by scaling up actionable solutions triggering societal transformations.
Proposal deadline: TBA
Learn more about all of the mission-areas below:
- Adaptation to climate change including societal transformation
- Cancer
- Climate-neutral and smart cities
- Healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters
- Soil health and food
Horizon Europe FAQs
When are the next deadlines for Horizon Europe?
Deadlines vary between each pillar and sub-programme. All deadlines for the 2026 Work Programme have been published, such as across the Global Challenges and Industrial Competitiveness Pillar. All sub-programmes have published deadlines for 2026, such as EIC, ERC and MSCA.
What is the budget for Horizon Europe?
The total budget for Horizon Europe, which runs from 2021-2027, is €95.5 billion. This is divided over 3 pillars and 1 horizontal focus area.
How can you prepare a successful proposal to Horizon Europe?
Writing a successful proposal starts with identifying the correct call. You must ensure you thoroughly understand the criteria of the call, including eligibility criteria and financial considerations. Key information to consider for each call is the Expected impact, Scope, and Type of Call. Next you need to build a strong, complimentary consortium – a winning team of partners. Next, you need to prepare a high-quality proposal, making it clear to the reviewer how your project is an ideal match to the scope of the given subsidy.
To gain a greater level of insight into preparing a successful proposal, download our free Horizon Europe application guide.
How should you approach the Blind Evaluation process in Stage 1 applications?
Our Horizon Europe experts have shared their 3 top tips to navigate the new blind evaluation. These include: 1) Be extra vigilant in specific high risk sections; 2) Include an additional review by an external person in your process; 3) Maintain the richness of your value proposition.
Read the full Insights article on the Blind Evaluation Pilot
When will Horizon Europe calls start?
Detailed information on Horizon Europe 2026 calls, including specific opening dates, can be found in the 2026-2027 work programme. It’s advisable to regularly consult the European Commission’s Funding and Tenders Portal for the most current information.
Examples of winning Horizon Europe projects:
We are proud of our high success rate in Horizon Europe applications. Read more about successful projects and follow the links to read the full interviews with our clients.
CÚRAM Partnership: €24M grant awards
CÚRAM is an Irish research centre based at the University of Galway, aiming to radically improve health outcomes for patients by creating and translating clinic-ready and patient focused ‘smart’ medical devices and implants. CÚRAM and Catalyze have shared a highly successful partnership since 2018. Working with multiple PI’s at CÚRAM, Catalyze co-developed 13 proposals to Horizon Europe Health calls, securing €24M with up to 75% success rate.
TETTRIs – a new vision for European taxonomy
Transforming European Taxonomy through Training, Research, and Innovations (TETTRIs), is a Horizon Europe project advancing the field of taxonomy and beyond, with a consortium comprised of 17 institutions from 13 European countries. TETTRIs was awarded ~€6 million from Horizon Europe’s Cluster 6 call
Download our Horizon Europe Guide
There’s a lot to take into consideration when applying for Horizon Europe funding: budget, consortium partners, application processes, activities, and specific conditions. Our Horizon Europe Guide gives you insights on how to write an appealing proposal, gives all the success criteria and maximises your chances of getting funded.
Download our free guide
The European Commission has published all work programmes in full. You can access the full list of EC publications for each work programme here.
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