Following many queries from subscribers on next Horizon Europe Work Programmes, we are re-publishing our article from September with updated information on the Commission’s latest planning for the main Work Programme parts beyond 2024.
Political background
2024 will be an important year for the European Union, as it is the year of the next European Parliament elections. Every five years EU citizens choose who represents them in the European Parliament and the next opportunity to do so will be between 6 and 9 June 2024. More than 700 Members of European Parliament will be directly elected to represent EU citizens until 2029.
Following the elections, the Parliament will vote to elect the new head of the European Commission, and eventually to approve the full College of Commissioners – one from each EU Member State. The new Commission is expected to be in place by November 2024 and will present its political priorities for the next five years shortly afterwards.
Separately from this process, the Commission is finalising the next Horizon Europe Strategic Plan for the period 2025-27. Like the current Strategic Plan – covering the first four years of the programme – it will define the key strategic orientations for the last years of Horizon Europe, which will eventually be translated into the next Work Programmes with calls for proposals. The second Strategic Plan is expected to be published in the first quarter of this year. UKRO understands that the main text of this document is already finished but it can only be published when the list of new European Partnerships under Horizon Europe is finalised – discussions on this subject are still ongoing between the Member States and the Commission.
Impact on the main Horizon Europe Work Programme for 2025
As the Work Programmes of Horizon Europe and other centrally-managed EU funding programmes address the political priorities of the European Commission, the 2025 Work Programme of Horizon Europe can only be published once the new College of Commissioners is in place, although it will still be developed primarily during 2024.
UKRO understands that the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the Europe Commission is currently planning for the next Work Programme to be an annual one (in contrast to the biannual Work Programmes published so far), covering 2025 only, and for it to be a bridge between the current Work Programme (2023-24) and the future one (2026-27), which will reflect the priorities of the new College.
We also understand that, in early 2024 (most likely in March) the Commission will publish an amendment to the main 2023-24 Work Programme, which will include some of the 2025 funding opportunities in those parts of Horizon Europe that do not address the political priorities of the Commission. This could include the MSCA, Research Infrastructures and possibly also the Widening element of the programme and would ensure that the well-established annual calls that are not dependent on the political priorities of the EU could be launched quickly.
In addition to this, we understand that the planned amendment will include the 2024 calls for proposals under the Missions Work Programme part. The initial five Missions of Horizon Europe had to be evaluated last year and the text of the 2024 calls for proposals is currently being finalised. The publication of this Work Programme part was delayed because of the political discussions on the newly-proposed New European Bauhaus (NEB) Mission, which in the end was blocked by the Member States. We understand that while the NEB will no longer continue as a fully-fledged Mission, the updated Missions Work Programme part for 2024 will add a dedicated destination for the NEB – worth around €20 million – in the cross-cutting section for the existing Missions.
The remainder of the main Work Programme for 2025 (addressing EU political priorities), which does not include the ERC or the EIC (with their separate annual Work Programmes) will be developed during 2024 and published in early 2025.
UKRO will keep subscribers informed about any developments in this area via the UKRO Portal.