Horizon Europe: EUR 14bn R&D funding for 2026–27
Horizon Europe: EUR 14bn R&D funding for 2026–27
What are the European Union’s newly published priorities for R&D funding?
In December 2025, the European Union officially published the final version of the Horizon Europe framework programme for the period 2026–2027, covering the last two years of the current funding cycle.
According to the publication, the EU is offering funding opportunities worth EUR 14 billion and defining research and innovation priorities aimed at strengthening the EU’s competitiveness and sustainability. The programme is structured around three pillars:
Pillar I: Excellent Science – targeted support for researcher mobility and the development of research infrastructures;
Pillar II: Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness – covering the thematic areas like Health; Culture, Civil Security for Society, Digitalisation, Industry and Space; Climate, Energy and Mobility; and Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment;
Pillar III: Innovative Europe – focusing on strengthening research and innovation capacities and stimulating start-ups.
The overall objective of the work programme is to accelerate the green and digital transitions through incentive-based measures in order to enhance competitiveness. A key difference and new approach compared to previous years is that the topic descriptions are more open, while the number of topics is lower, and 50% of the funding is awarded in the form of lump-sum grants. While this varies by call, it can generally be stated that many calls support a two-stage submission process, meaning that a full proposal is not required at the first stage.
The programme also introduces so-called horizontal objectives, primarily linked to climate-related priority areas (such as industrial decarbonisation, climate-neutral cities and soil health), artificial intelligence solutions (AI in Science), and sustainability-oriented development concepts (New European Bauhaus).
As calls are opened on a rolling basis, timely planning and early preparation are of critical importance.
Typical pitfalls to be aware of:
- Lack of resources and capacity - The preparation and management of EU-funded projects are highly time- and labour-intensive.
It is advisable to involve an internal funding specialist or an external consultant.
- Mismatch between business processes and funding requirements – Internal corporate processes and routines often do not align at first glance with a bureaucratic funding system.
Involving experienced professionals can support smooth and effective tender management.
- Perseverance despite rejection – Negative feedback is not a failure but an opportunity.
Evaluators highly appreciate projects that have been clearly further developed.
What makes a proposal successful?
The key to success for proposals submitted under Horizon Europe is their strong alignment with the call requirements. In these funding schemes, it is typically the activity that must be aligned with the call, rather than the call being adapted to a predefined activity. Consequently, proposal preparation requires thorough research and careful planning.
Most Horizon Europe proposals are submitted within consortia, where a key success factor is balance in both budget allocation and expertise. It is essential to cover the entire value chain, from research to market entry. Projects must present evidence-based innovation claims supported by KPI’s, and they must focus on long-term impact, sustainability and the reproducibility of results.
By contrast, common weaknesses of unsuccessful projects include meeting only the minimum requirements or forming artificially constructed partnerships without real synergies. Other typical shortcomings are unsupported claims, overestimated innovation levels, insufficient competitor analysis, and the lack of a post-EU-funding exploitation plan. Additional risks include disproportionate budget allocation within the consortium, poorly defined KPIs, and non-transparent, generic proposal documentation.
Should this topic have sparked your interest, our expert colleagues are at your disposal to support the identification and qualification of research and development activities, the search for consortium partners, and the mapping of suitable funding opportunities. Please feel free to contact us at fdi@bdo.hu or via any of the contact details available on our website.
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