Deadlines and more for Horizon Europe

Applying to subsidies requires forward planning and careful consideration of the timelines for application preparation, submission deadlines and review periods. Within Horizon Europe there are multiple different deadlines and procedures involved to keep this entire programme running. While determining your strategy for applying to these programmes it is important to be aware of the differences between them. In this article, we highlight the different procedures, systems and deadlines.

How many stages are there in the Horizon Europe application process?

There are several different approaches to the application procedure:

• Single stage applications: there is one deadline for which a proposal should be submitted.
• Two or three stage applications: the application process exists of multiple steps. After each step the review procedure selects the best proposals, which then pass through to the next round. This could include short and long proposals, but also full proposals and interview rounds. In the case of EIC Accelerator, the application procedure consists of three stages.

What principle is used in the review process?

The principle used for the review process also determines when you should submit. Horizon Europe currently only uses the Tender principle.

Tender principle: every proposal submitted before the set deadline will be reviewed after the deadline. The proposals are ranked according to the review criteria, with the best then awarded subsidy. In this system it does not matter whether you submitted your proposal on the first or the last day of the submission period.

When are the Horizon Europe deadlines for your programme of choice?

Generally the work programmes keep to the same timelines each year. However, different systems are in place for different programmes:

• The same call returns every year in the same period (examples include the MSCA and ERC work program).
• One time only calls. Within the different clusters that cover global challenges, the single- and two-stage procedures keep to the same timelines every year. However, the content of the subsidy calls differ each year. The RIA and IS subsidies within these work programs are one time only calls covering different topics each year.
• Recurring deadlines multiple times per year: and example of this system is the EIC Accelerator, which has 4 rounds of deadlines each year.

Learn more, download our Horizon Europe guide

Access the European Commission’s full list of reference documents for the Horizon Europe Work Programme