European Partnerships are initiatives in which the EU Commission and private and/or public partners commit themselves to jointly support the development and implementation of a research and innovation program. They make a significant contribution to achieving the EU's political priorities, such as the Green Deal, Europe's digital strategy or pandemic preparedness.
Horizon Europe introduces a strategic and impact-driven approach to Partnerships with common life-cycle criteria. As a policy approach, they shall provide mechanisms to link R&I to policy needs, develop close synergies with national and regional programmes, bring together a broad range of innovation actors to work towards a common goal, and turn research results into socio-economic impacts.
The strategic approach under Horizon Europe aims to improve the coherence of the Partnerships among themselves and in interaction with other instruments in the Framework Programme (including EU-Missions). In addition, the Partnerships are to be made more open and transparent in terms of participants, activities and results.
European R&I partnerships shall furthermore develop the European Research Area (ERA), overcome the fragmentation of the R&I landscape, avoid duplication with national or regional research activities and promote competitiveness and innovation.
Horizon Europe distinguishes between 3 types of European Partnerships and foresees a systemic process for selecting, implementing and monitoring for all European Partnerships, linking them with the Strategic Planning of Horizon Europe.
Selection procedure and budget
Identifying European Partnerships is an integral part of Horizon Europe’s strategic planning process. This will ensure alignment with the programme’s priorities.
The portfolio of European Partnerships includes 49 candidates within the 1st Strategic Plan of Horizon Europe (2021 – 2024). Further Partnerships are expected for the 2nd Strategic Plan (2025 – 2027).
The budget for the European Partnerships contributed by the EU Commission, comes from Horizon Europe, especially from the thematic clusters in Pillar 2. In order to ensure planning security, Article 10 of the Regulation on Horizon Europe sets a cap on the budget for European Partnerships. Overall, the share of the budget that may be used for Partnerships must remain below 50% of the total budget for Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe.
