European Partnership Help Center

The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda provides a long term vision for the partnership and ensures that activities are aligned with European policy objectives. It identifies priority areas, expected impacts and a roadmap of activities. The annual or multi‑annual work programmes translate that vision into concrete calls and actions, setting budgets, timelines and governance arrangements. Without a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda, a partnership risks becoming a collection of unconnected projects, and without work programmes the strategy cannot be implemented. Both documents are revisited regularly to remain relevant and responsive to emerging needs.

Two main types of activities are funded. Joint Transnational Calls (JTC) allocate financial support to third parties and are co-financed by the EU and national or regional funding organisations. Additional activities implement the partnership beyond joint calls and may include access to data and services, shared infrastructures, capacity building, networking, stakeholder engagement and policy alignment. All activities must be defined in the work programme and must comply with the cost categories specified in the grant agreement to be eligible for EU funding.

A co-funded  European Partnership is established when a consortium submits a proposal under a Horizon Europe work programme topic and signs a grant agreement with the European Commission. The consortium typically comprises public funders, ministries and research organisations that become beneficiaries under the grant agreement. Associated partners may also participate: they do not sign the grant agreement and cannot claim EU funding but contribute knowledge or coordination. Beneficiaries design the strategic agenda, implement the work programme and generate the EU contribution, while the funded research consortia selected through joint calls are not part of the grant agreement and receive cascade funding via their national funding agencies.

A co-funded European Partnership is a research and innovation initiative where the European Commission and national or regional authorities jointly develop and finance a programme. A grant agreement between the Commission and a consortium of public authorities sets the framework, and eligible costs are reimbursed at a flat rate (commonly thirty per cent or fifty per cent). Co-funded partnerships differ from co-programmed European Partnerships , which are largely driven by industry and use a memorandum of understanding, and from institutionalised European Partnerships , which are long term, have their own legal structures and large funding commitments. Co-funded partnerships align European and national priorities and are designed to deliver policy objectives that neither level could achieve alone.

While the Commission does not plan to publish the phasing out strategies, we strongly encourage partnerships to make their strategies publicly available. Partnerships communities are aware that these initiatives have defined end dates. Making the strategy accessible with the right contextual framing will support transparency and predictability for stakeholders and enable them to better understand and anticipate possible future orientations.

The phasing-out strategy must be formally validated/adopted within the partnership’s governance structure. Only a formally validated strategy can be considered compliant with the legal requirement set out in the Horizon Europe Regulation, as formal endorsement is an important element to demonstrate ownership from the partnership. If the governing body does not adopt the submitted draft, the partnership may revise the strategy to address internal concerns, provided that the final adopted version remains compliant with the guidance and minimum requirements. Where available and appropriate, partnerships may also make use of internal pre-approval or written procedures to facilitate timely validation. The responsibility for ensuring formal adoption and compliance rests with the partnership.