EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 5.8.2022 COM(2022) 389 final REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Annual Report on Research and Technological Development Activities of the European Union and Monitoring of Horizon Europe and Horizon 2020 in 2021



Horizon Europe has strengthened gender equality rules, including a new eligibility criterion enforced as of 2022. All public bodies, research organisations and higher education bodies in Member States or associated countries must have a gender equality plan in place to be eligible for funding. 3.2.Monitoring data analysis – Calls launched In 2021, more than a hundred calls for proposals and other actions in the 2021-2022 Horizon Europe work programme were launched: ·Pillar 1 – Excellent science had 15 calls for proposals and 7 calls for other actions supporting frontier research and breakthrough scientific ideas (EUR 3 billion). ·Pillar 2 - Global challenges and European industrial competitiveness had 42 calls for proposals (EUR 5.3 billion) and 26 calls for other actions (EUR 328 million) in six different clusters. ·Pillar 3 – Innovative Europe had 14 calls for proposals and 8 calls for other actions (EUR 1.6 billion), which aim to support the development of disruptive innovations. ·Widening participation and strengthening the ERA had 5 calls for proposals and 4 calls for other actions (EUR 266.5 million). European Partnerships The Commission launched 23 new European Partnerships: · Eleven co-programmed European Partnerships: 17 calls for proposals (EUR 1.6 billion) related to co-programmed partnerships were launched, primarily in the digital (cluster 4) and climate (cluster 5) domains, but also from the research infrastructures work programme. · Eleven institutionalised European Partnerships : Out of the institutionalised European partnerships, the High Performance Computing and Key Digital Technologies Joint Undertaking launched four calls for proposals (EUR 215 million). ·One co-funded European Partnership: The European Biodiversity Partnership has launched one call for proposals: 46 funding organisations from 34 countries have reserved a total amount of over EUR 40 million. Missions For the five Horizon Europe Missions, 13 calls for proposals (around EUR 541 million) were launched. Expected contribution to the Commission’s priorities For now, Horizon Europe’s contribution to this Commission’s 2019-2024 priorities can only be estimated based on data collected for calls : ·33 calls aimed at contributing to the European Green Deal (around EUR 4 billion across all clusters );

·29 calls aimed at contributing to a Europe fit for the digital age (around EUR 2.2 billion ). In 2021, the Commission also mobilised EUR 123 million for research on coronavirus variants as announced in April and in line with the HERA incubator . Success rates By end 2021, 64 of the over 100 calls for proposals had been closed and fully evaluated. The calls generated 7 460 eligible proposals that requested a total EU contribution of EUR 18.8 billion. Although 66% of the eligible proposals were above the quality threshold, only 1 290 could be selected, bringing the overall success rate of eligible proposals to 17.3% for the first year of the programme. By end 2021, 19 grant agreements had already been signed for a total EU contribution of EUR 245.6 million shared across different thematic areas (see Table 1). The other grants were still under preparation.



Thematic area EU contribution (EUR) Average grant size (EUR) No. of grants signed European Research Council (ERC) 517 828.75 517 828.75 1 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) 150 000.00 150 000.00 1 Research infrastructures 400 000.00 200 000.00 2 Health 88 527 007.06 9 836 334.118 9 Culture, creativity and inclusive society 703 796.75 351 898.38 2 Climate, energy and mobility 250 000.00 250 000.00 1 Widening participation and spreading excellence 153 000 000.00 153 000 000.00 1 Reforming and enhancing the European R&I system 2 100 000.00 1 050 000.00 2 245 648 632.56 19 Table 1: Grant agreements signed by thematic area The first grants signed involve 120 participants from 28 different countries. Excluding the specific co-funded action COST (EUR 153 million), 13.7% of the EU funding will go to 10 participants from SMEs and 8.5% will go to non-EU countries. Higher education (37%) and research organisations (24%) have the biggest share of participants. 3.3.Horizon 2020 in 2021 By end 2021, 955 Horizon 2020 call deadlines had passed, and 283 065 eligible proposals had been submitted, requesting a total EU contribution of EUR 473.2 billion. Of these proposals, 33 798 were selected for funding, bringing the overall success rate of eligible proposals in 7 years to 11.9%. In 2021, 3 160 grant agreements were signed for a total of EUR 6.1 billion bringing the total EU budget allocation for 2014-2021 to EUR 68.2 billion, from which the Excellent Science pillar had the biggest share (36.7%) followed by the Societal challenges (38.5%) and Industrial leadership (20.2%) pillars. Among the distinct 41 200 beneficiaries, higher education organisations remain the largest group of recipients (39.2% of all recipients), followed by the private sector (28.2%), while 16.5% of Horizon 2020 funding goes to SMEs. So far, EU-funded projects under Horizon 2020 have resulted in more than 151 000 peer-reviewed publications above 2 600 patents applications and 1 168 patent awards.



3.4.Dissemination and exploitation Different activities supported the dissemination and exploitation of R&I project results. ·New features to characterise results were added to the Horizon Results platform and 500 new key exploitable results from the framework programmes were uploaded by beneficiaries. ·The Horizon Results Booster provided targeted dissemination and exploitation services to beneficiaries. · CORDIS disseminated the results from the EU funded R&I projects. It reached professionals in the field to foster open science, created innovative products and services and stimulated growth across Europe. It further produced a range of topical multilingual editorial products.