Back to guides Horizon Europe

Horizon Europe: the EU’s research engine.

Horizon Europe is the European Union's framework programme for research and innovation and the world's largest collaborative research programme, with a budget of about EUR 95.5 billion for 2021 to 2027. It funds research and innovation across three pillars, mostly through international consortia.

At a glance

The EU's ninth Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, running 2021 to 2027, budget about EUR 95.5 billion.
Structured in three pillars plus a horizontal area on widening participation.
Funding rates: Research and Innovation Actions at 100 percent of eligible costs, Innovation Actions at 70 percent (100 percent for non-profits), plus a 25 percent flat rate for indirect costs.
Most calls require a consortium of at least three independent organisations from three different EU or associated countries; some sub-programmes fund single applicants.
Open to companies, universities, research organisations, public bodies, and NGOs; the UK and Switzerland participate as associated countries.
Applications go through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal and are highly competitive (typical success around 10 to 15 percent).
2026 to 2027 is the final work programme of the current period; a larger successor is proposed for 2028 onward.

1. What is Horizon Europe?

The scale and purpose of the programme and where it is in its cycle.

Horizon Europe is the EU's main instrument for funding research and innovation, designed to tackle global challenges, strengthen European industrial competitiveness, and support the green and digital transitions. With a budget of around EUR 95.5 billion over 2021 to 2027, it is the largest collaborative research programme in the world. The 2026 to 2027 work programme is the final one of the current period, with a strong continued focus on competitiveness, green and digital transitions, resilience, and societal impact, and at least 35 percent of the budget dedicated to climate action.

2. The three pillars

The structure of the programme, since you always apply within a specific pillar and call.

Horizon Europe is organised in three pillars and one horizontal area:

Pillar 1 - Excellent Science: frontier research funded by the European Research Council (ERC), researcher mobility and training through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), and research infrastructures.
Pillar 2 - Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness: the largest pillar, organised into thematic clusters such as Health, Digital and Industry and Space, Climate and Energy and Mobility, and Food and Bioeconomy and Natural Resources, plus the EU Missions and European partnerships.
Pillar 3 - Innovative Europe: market-creating innovation through the European Innovation Council (which includes the EIC Accelerator), European Innovation Ecosystems, and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
Horizontal area - Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area.

You apply to a specific call topic within one of these pillars, defined in the work programme.

3. Who can apply

The consortium rule and the organisations that can take part.

For the typical collaborative calls in Pillar 2, you need a consortium of at least three independent legal entities from three different EU member states or associated countries. Eligible participants include companies of all sizes, universities, research organisations, public bodies, and NGOs. Some sub-programmes work differently: ERC grants, MSCA fellowships, and the EIC Accelerator fund single beneficiaries. The UK and Switzerland participate as associated countries, so their organisations can take part.

4. Funding rates and costs

How the EU contribution is calculated, which differs by action type.

The funding rate depends on the type of action. Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) and Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) are funded at 100 percent of eligible costs. Innovation Actions (IA), which are closer to market, are funded at 70 percent for for-profit participants, so a company self-finances 30 percent, and at 100 percent for non-profits. On top of the direct costs, a flat rate of 25 percent is added for indirect costs. The rate is applied to eligible costs, not to the full value of the work, and costs incurred before the project start or already covered by another EU grant are never reimbursable.

5. How to apply

The route, the timeline, and what a strong application requires.

Applications are submitted through the EU Funding and Tenders Portal. The process starts with finding the right call topic in the work programme and reading the scope, expected impact, and call type carefully. You then build a complementary international consortium and prepare a high-quality proposal that maps clearly onto the call's expected impact. From spotting a call to signing the grant agreement typically takes 6 to 12 months, and experienced teams begin scoping calls and building consortia at least six months before the deadline. Competition is strong, with many calls funding only 10 to 15 percent of applicants.

6. Notes

How Horizon Europe relates to the other instruments and the no-double-funding rule.

Horizon Europe is the right instrument for ambitious, collaborative, often international research and innovation, especially where a consortium and a strong fit to EU policy priorities exist. Its strict "no double funding" rule means the same costs cannot also be covered by another EU programme or, in practice, by national instruments for the identical cost item. For smaller, national, or single-company R&D, the Forschungszulage, ZIM, or KMU-innovativ are usually more accessible, and several EU SME-focused routes (the EIC Accelerator and Eurostars) sit within or alongside Horizon Europe.

7. Action types and technology readiness

The action type a call uses sets the funding rate, the maturity of the work and what the consortium is expected to deliver.

Research and Innovation Actions (RIA) fund new knowledge and proof of concept, typically at TRL 2–5, at 100% of eligible costs. Innovation Actions (IA) fund closer-to-market work, prototypes, demonstration and piloting at TRL 5–8, at 70% for profit-making companies and 100% for non-profit bodies. Coordination and Support Actions (CSA) fund networking, coordination and policy support at 100%. On top of the direct costs, Horizon adds a 25% flat rate for indirect costs. Knowing your TRL is the quickest way to read which action type, and therefore which rate, applies to your project: research clusters around the lower-middle rungs, innovation around the upper ones.

8. The six clusters of Pillar II

Most collaborative calls sit in Pillar II, which holds more than half the budget and is organised into six thematic clusters.

Health — disease, health systems, medical technologies.
Culture, Creativity & Inclusive Society — democracy, heritage, social change.
Civil Security for Society — disaster resilience, cybersecurity, border protection.
Digital, Industry & Space — AI, advanced manufacturing, space and key digital technologies.
Climate, Energy & Mobility — clean energy, transport and the climate transition.
Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources & Environment — agriculture, biodiversity and the circular economy.

Each cluster runs its own calls under the biennial work programme; the first step in any Horizon project is to find the call topic your idea answers.

9. The five EU Missions

Alongside the clusters, Horizon runs five Missions, goal-driven programmes that fund the projects able to move a concrete, measurable target.

Beating cancer — better prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Adaptation to climate change — resilience across at least 150 regions and communities.
Restore our ocean and waters — by 2030.
100 climate-neutral and smart cities — by 2030.
A soil deal for Europe — 100 living labs to lead the transition to healthy soils.

10. How proposals are evaluated

Independent experts score every proposal on three criteria, and impact usually decides the ranking.

Each proposal is assessed on Excellence (the ambition, novelty and soundness of the methodology), Impact (the scale and significance of the outcomes and a credible plan to exploit and disseminate them) and Implementation (the work plan, the consortium's capacity, and the allocation of resources and risk). Each axis is scored from 0 to 5, with a threshold of 3 per criterion and 10 overall. Above the threshold, proposals are ranked and the budget funds down the list until it is exhausted, which is why a strong impact section, not just excellent science, so often decides whether a project is funded. Proposals are submitted through the EU Funding & Tenders portal, in a single or two-stage call, and funded on actual costs or, increasingly, a lump sum fixed at award.

11. The timeline, end to end

An illustrative timeline for a collaborative call; the binding dates are the call deadlines in the Work Programme.

Find the call and partners (months), identify the right part and call, build the consortium, and register on the Funding & Tenders Portal (PIC).
Prepare the proposal (weeks to months), write Part B (Excellence, Impact, Implementation) and complete Part A (administrative and budget).
Submit by the deadline, via the Funding & Tenders Portal, single-stage or stage 1 then stage 2.
Evaluation (about five months), independent experts score the three criteria, ranked lists are drawn up, and applicants receive the Evaluation Summary Report.
Grant preparation (about three months), successful proposals finalise the budget, consortium and details.
Signature and start, the Grant Agreement is signed, the project starts, and pre-financing is paid.
Project and reporting (about two to five years), carry out the work and report at periodic intervals for interim and final payments.

Horizon runs on biennial Work Programmes (current 2026-2027) with fixed call deadlines. The standard guidance is to target a deadline at least six months out, to allow for consortium-building and a strong impact narrative.

12. What to prepare

The documents are standardised across the portal, with call-specific templates.

To register: organisation registration on the Funding & Tenders Portal and a Participant Identification Code (PIC), with legal-entity and, where required, financial-viability validation.

The proposal: Part A, the administrative forms and budget completed on the portal; and Part B, the technical proposal structured as Excellence (objectives, ambition, methodology, beyond the state of the art), Impact (outcomes, pathways, exploitation, dissemination and communication) and Quality and efficiency of the implementation (work plan, work packages, consortium, resources and risks), plus any call-specific annexes such as ethics and security self-assessments.

For the consortium and after selection: a consortium agreement governing IP, roles and budget (required before grant signature for multi-beneficiary projects), then grant-agreement-preparation documents leading to the Model Grant Agreement. ERC, MSCA and the EIC Accelerator use their own templates.

13. Industry examples

Horizon funds research and innovation across every field; its clusters and parts span the whole economy. These are illustrative project shapes, not named beneficiaries.

A health or MedTech consortium advancing disease prevention, diagnosis or treatment (Cluster 1).
A digital, AI or advanced-manufacturing collaboration (Cluster 4).
A clean-energy, transport or climate project under Cluster 5, or an EU Mission.
A food, bioeconomy or environment project under Cluster 6.
A frontier-science team applying to the ERC, or a researcher-mobility project through MSCA (Pillar I).
A single deep-tech SME scaling a breakthrough through the EIC Accelerator (Pillar III).

The common thread is fit to a specific call topic under a specific part of the programme. The first step in any Horizon project is to find the call your idea answers, then follow that call's rules.