The EU is bolstering research and innovation with an additional €500 million for Horizon Europe

The European Commission has allocated an additional 500 million euros to Horizon Europe, the EU’s flagship research and innovation programme, for 2026 and 2027. With this additional funding, the total budget now stands at around 14.8 billion euros for the two years.

Furthermore, the Commission will broaden the scope of Horizon Europe by including two new cross-cutting calls to tackle key research and innovation challenges, such as next-generation AI-based digital platforms for a more affordable, secure and sustainable European energy system; skills for innovative SMEs; focus on the benefits and impacts of clean and digital industries on biodiversity, and the acceleration of transformative change for biodiversity.

Horizon Europe helps researchers choose Europe, as confirmed by two monitoring reports published by the Commission. These reports show that Horizon Europe remains highly attractive to researchers, innovators and businesses across Europe and from other countries.

New funding opportunities

The two new horizontal calls are:

• A transformative shift towards an economy and society that value nature positively, with a budget of 237 million euros;
• Bridge Actions 2027, with total funding of €260 million.

The Nature-Positive call will fund 11 research and innovation actions that support the EU’s biodiversity objectives and contribute to achieving the 10 per cent biodiversity spending target set out in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025–2027.

This call will drive the transition towards nature-friendly economic models, supporting Europe’s long-term competitiveness, its economic and social resilience, and its strategic autonomy. It will also contribute to key EU priorities, such as the Ocean Pact and the EU Ocean Eye initiative , the Nature Restoration Regulation, the Clean Industry Pact, the European Water Resilience Strategy and the Communication on integrated forest fire risk management.

The call for ‘Bridge Actions 2027’ will pave the way for the EU’s next research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe 2028–2034, and its links with the future European Competitiveness Fund. It introduces the concept of the ‘innovation-to-investment pathway’ to better connect research with market application. Sixteen actions included in this call will support advanced technologies with strong commercial potential, addressing topics such as the EU AI Media Platform, a modular, multilingual public-interest infrastructure for European news and audiovisual media; Ambitious Cities for Autonomous Driving; Research and technology infrastructures as strategic assets to attract talent to Europe; and Advanced Scalability Frameworks for the New European Bauhaus

In addition, the amended work programme will support the New European Bauhaus Academy, including the upskilling and reskilling of workers in the construction sector. This support reflects the broader ambitions set out in the Commission’s 2025 Communication on the New European Bauhaus, which contributes to the Clean Industry Pact.

Horizon Europe continues to attract researchers.

The two reports published confirm the strong appeal of Horizon Europe to researchers, innovators and businesses across Europe and beyond.

The report ‘Horizon Europe: State of Play’ shows that the current programme, launched in 2021, has so far invested €61 billion in grants and a further €1.3 billion in equity across nearly 23,000 projects. More than 34,000 organisations, including 20,000 businesses, are involved in these projects. Most of the funding has gone to universities and research centres, whilst the private sector has also received more than €11 billion.

Horizon Europe projects have so far generated more than 32,300 peer-reviewed publications, the majority of which are open access. In addition, they provide support to more than 151,000 early-career researchers, including PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.

The second report,‘Is Horizon Europe attractive to new participants?’, shows that 55 per cent of beneficiaries are new to EU research and innovation programmes, and two-thirds are businesses. It also highlights a challenge: the average new participant takes part in just one project, compared with the multiple grants received by more experienced organisations.

Background  

Horizon Europe is the EU’s research and innovation programme, with a budget of €93.5 billion for the period 2021–2027, and the successor to Horizon 2020. The Horizon Europe work programme for the period 2026–2027 was approved on 11 December 2025. It is based on the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025–2027, which was approved in March 2024. 

 

Moreinformation: European Commission