Horizon Europe, participation in Horizon Europe : competitive, fair, transparent and easy to access.
Date: 2021-06-03
Institutions: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Subjects: EU programme, innovation, organisation of research, research budget, research expenditure (EU), research policy, sustainable development

#HorizonEU

March 2021

Horizon Europe must attract the best researchers and the most 
innovative companies to maximize its impact and achieve its 
ambitious scientific, societal and economic objectives. This calls for 
easy access, fair and transparent selection processes, smooth grant 
management and the valorisation of R&I results.

Mariya Gabriel Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth

PARTICIPATION IN HORIZON EUROPE

COMPETITIVE, FAIR, TRANSPARENT AND EASY TO ACCESS

Horizon  Europe  removes  unnecessary  red  tape,  so  that  taking  part  in  EU  research  and 
innovation will become easier than ever before.

Keeping it simple 

Horizon Europe will offer: 

   A stable legal framework with simplified rules and procedures

    Digital administration in a single platform where all information is available: 

 ū The  Funding  and  Tenders  Portal,  a  one-stop  shop  for  finding  opportunities  and  managing  all 

interactions.

   A fair, transparent and objective evaluation of proposals:

 ū Three evaluation criteria: Excellence, Impact and Quality of Implementation. 

 ū Careful  choice  of  expert  evaluators.  Expertise  first,  but  also  geographical,  gender  and  industry, 

academia diversity. 

 ū Adapted to new features such as EU missions and the European Innovation Council.

   Tools & initiatives that facilitate data reporting, dissemination and exploitation for value creation:

 ū Horizon Dashboard: one-stop-shop for data and 
statistics on EU R&I – an intuitive and interactive 
knowledge  platform  that  allows  to  explore  and 
visualise  data  on  various  research  topics,  to 
prepare  statistics  on  funding  implementation 
and  research  results,  whether  it  is  for  reporting, 
analysis,  monitoring 
decision-making 
purposes;

or 

 ū Horizon  Results  Platform:  online  platform 
and  matchmaking  tool  that  provides  the 
beneficiaries with an opportunity to advertise 
their results and innovations by making them 
accessible  and  easy  to  find  by 
investors, 
politicians, and other stakeholders. A dedicated 

team  behind  the  platform  actively  promotes 
the  results  and  facilitates  the  needs  of  the 
platform users;

 ū Horizon  Results  Booster: 

free  consulting 
services  –  portfolio  strategy;  business  plan 
development; go-to-market support – helping 
beneficiaries  to  maximise  their  dissemination 
and exploitation potential; 

 ū Horizon  Impact  Award:  an  annual  prize  to 
recognize  and  celebrate  outstanding  projects 
that have used their research results to provide 
value for society.

   Outreach,  guidance  and  support  to  participants  with  a  complete  set  of 

tools & services at beneficiaries’ disposal:

 ū Research Enquiry Service
 ū Info sessions and trainings
 ū Annotated Model Grant 

Agreement

 ū Online manual
 ū National Contact Points network 
 ū Outreach events across Europe 

and beyond.

Less red tape

Horizon Europe’s implementation is organised around: 

   A corporate Model Grant Agreement, used across all EU funding programmes, with further 

simplification of the rules, facilitating synergies at project level and further reducing error rates.

   Rules for participation aligned with the EU Financial Regulation. 

For all aspects not requiring specific rules, related to the 
nature of R&I, the rules of the general EU Financial Regulation 
apply – providing simpler opportunities for synergies between 
programmes.

   Simplified forms of funding (flat rates, unit costs, lump sums, 
prizes), based on the experience in Horizon 2020, including 
ongoing pilots on lump sum project funding.

   Simpler rules for personnel costs. The complex and error-prone 

rules of Horizon 2020 will be further mitigated by a simpler 
rule, based on daily rates. 

   An integrated dissemination and exploitation ecosystem that 
provides more support and guidance to participants, with the 
aim to enhance the value creation of the research and innovation 
investment.

Novelties in evaluation process

Adjusted evaluation criteria

Easier to understand, clearer definitions and consistent 
use of the terminology. In particular, the impact criterion 
has  been  revised  following  a  clearer  logic  linking  the 
project  results  to  the  expected  outcomes  over  the 
medium term, and to the wider long term impacts, as 
specified  in  the  Work  Programme.  Applicants  must 
describe  a  plausible  pathway  to  impact  over  time, 
including beyond the lifetime of a project.

A pilot for anonymous evaluation

Experts will evaluate an outline of the proposed work 
without knowing who is behind it. This pilot addresses 
concerns about a possible unconscious partiality that 
evaluation  experts  may  have  in  favour  of  proposals 
from  well-known  organisations 
in  countries  with 
better performing R&I systems.

A ‘Right to React’ (rebuttal) evaluation

Applicants  will  be  actively  involved  in  the  evaluation 
process  by  reacting  to  experts’  individual  comments. 
The experts will take applicants’ reaction into account 
before  finalising  their  final  assessment.  This  new 
feature  addresses  concerns  on  the  quality  of  the 
feedback  to  applicants  and  has  the  potential  to 
increase  the  transparency  of  the  evaluation  system.  
A pilot will run at the early phase of Horizon Europe to 
fine tune the implementation modalities.

How to participate

Access the Funding and Tenders Portal: 

Maximising impact

Tens of thousands of applicants from individual 
scientists  and  SMEs  to  big  companies  and 
received 
international  organisations  have 
funding  for  their  projects  under  the  past  EU 
R&I programmes.

EVOLUTION IN PARTICIPATION 
BETWEEN FP7 AND HORIZON 2020:

More than 68% of participants 
in Horizon 2020 are “newcomers”.

68%

Others

Newcomers

* Source: Horizon Dashboard - September 2020

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Find an
OPPORTUNITY

Find 
PARTNER(S)

Create an
ACCOUNT

Register your
ORGANISATION

Submit your
PROPOSALS

Get
FUNDING

More information: 

Funding and Tenders portal
Horizon Dashboard
Horizon Results Platform
Horizon Results Booster
Horizon Impact Award

#HorizonEU
#HorizonStatsEU
#ResearchImpactEU
#HorizonImpactAward

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2021

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ISBN 978-92-76-36515-0

doi:10.2777/221391

KI-03-20-714-EN-C

ISBN 978-92-76-24765-4

doi:10.2777/349512

KI-03-20-714-EN-N