The European Commission is increasing funding for the Horizon Europe programme by €500m for 2026 and 2027, taking the programme’s budget for the two years to around €14.8bn.
Horizon Europe is the EU’s €93.5bn research and innovation programme for 2021-2027 and the successor to Horizon 2020.
The additional funding will support research and innovation while expanding the programme into new areas including artificial intelligence (AI), biodiversity, and skills.
Alongside the funding increase, the Commission is introducing two cross-cutting calls worth a combined €497m
The calls will target major research and innovation challenges, including developing AI-driven digital platforms for Europe’s energy system, supporting innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, and accelerating progress towards a nature-positive economy.
The move comes as new Commission monitoring reports highlight the continued participation of researchers, businesses and other organisations in Horizon Europe.
Since its launch in 2021, the programme has invested €61bn in grants and a further €1.3bn in equity across nearly 23,000 projects.
Two new Horizon Europe calls
The first of the new calls, Transformative Change Towards a Nature-Positive Economy and Society, has a budget of €237m.
It will fund 11 research and innovation actions that support the EU’s biodiversity objectives and contribute to the 10% biodiversity spending target set in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027.
The funding is intended to support a shift towards economic models that have a positive impact on nature, while also contributing to Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and strategic autonomy.
The call will also support priorities including the Ocean Pact, EU Ocean Eye, Nature Restoration Regulation, Clean Industrial Deal, European Water Resilience Strategy, and the EU’s approach to integrated wildfire risk management.
Connecting research with investment
The second call, Bridging Actions 2027, will receive €260m and is intended to help prepare for the next EU research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe 2028-2034.
Bridging Actions 2027 introduces an approach described as an innovation-to-investment journey, designed to strengthen the connection between research and eventual market deployment.
Sixteen actions will support advanced technologies with commercial potential across several areas. These include an EU AI Media Platform for multilingual public-interest news and audiovisual media, autonomous driving in cities, research and technology infrastructures, attracting talent to Europe and frameworks for scaling new technologies.
The call will also support the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Academy, including efforts to upskill and reskill workers in the construction sector.
This forms part of the wider objectives set out in the Commission’s 2025 communication on the NEB and its contribution to the Clean Industrial Deal.
Horizon Europe continues to attract new participants
The additional funding comes alongside evidence that the Horizon Europe programme continues to attract organisations that have not previously participated in EU research and innovation programmes.
The Commission’s Horizon Europe State of Play report shows that almost 23,000 projects have received funding since the programme began. More than 34,000 organisations are involved, including 20,000 companies.
Universities and research centres have received most of the funding, while businesses and other private-sector organisations have secured more than €11bn.
The programme’s research output has also grown substantially. Projects funded through Horizon Europe have generated more than 32,300 peer-reviewed publications, with most made openly accessible.
The programme is also supporting more than 151,000 early-career researchers, including PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers.
Businesses make up much of the newcomer group
A second Commission report examining the attractiveness of Horizon Europe found that 55% of beneficiaries are new participants in EU research and innovation programmes.
Businesses account for around two-thirds of these newcomers, indicating that the programme is bringing a significant number of companies into EU-funded research for the first time.
However, the report also identifies a difference between newcomers and more established participants. On average, organisations joining the programme for the first time participate in only one project, while experienced organisations tend to secure multiple grants.
This suggests that while Horizon Europe is succeeding in widening participation, there remains scope to help new beneficiaries build longer-term involvement in EU research and innovation.
The findings underline the importance of not only widening access to European research funding, but ensuring new participants can build on that first experience and play a sustained role in the EU’s research and innovation landscape.
