EU Parliament officially votes and unlocks €95.5 billion for HE

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Late April (the 27th) has seen the €95.5 billion Horizon Europe budget’s official adoption by the European Parliament after the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE committee) gave its final consent over the past few weeks.

Sciences will play a key role throughout the whole framework and will constitute an inherent element to the programme’s five main mission areas:

  • Preparing Europe to a resilient climate transition
  • Tackling cancer
  • Creating 100 climate neutral cities by 2030
  • Regenerating our oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters
  • Ensuring that 75% of soils are healthy by 2030

Nevertheless, the European Commission postponed again the launch of Horizon Europe work programmes. Hence, the publication of calls is delayed at least until the end of May 2021. The initial publication of the Horizon Europe work programmes was due in March 2021.

Source: European Parliament, Infographics “how the EU invests in science” (https://bit.ly/3vY6Yc6)

In addition, chemistry will predominantly intervene under Pillar II – the second out of the Horizon Europe three Pillars – which is channelled towards “Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”; and more specifically in clusters 1,5 and 6. These will focus on “Health”, “Climate, Energy and Mobility” and “Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment” respectively. These clusters represent three of the five largest dedicated budget shares within the entire programme.

Negotiations on the UK case are still ongoing, but the former member state is still expected to take part in the multiple bilateral Horizon Europe agreements with external nations, which are provided to reinforce international cooperation. Therefore, the UK will be fully eligible to Horizon Europe calls with some minor exceptions (e.g., the EIC fund).

The country’s participation in Horizon Europe will be of utmost importance for British researchers and will maintain mutual benefits for both blocks. Moreover, the UK is also meant to take part in other EU programmes such as Euratom or Copernicus as an associated state.

With this in mind, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) recently launched its own guiding webpage providing useful information on how the UK is to be integrated into Horizon Europe’s various actions and calls over the next 7 years.

Read the European Parliament Press Release on the adoption of Horizon Europe here.

 

 

 

 

 

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