Two Decades of European Partnerships
Over the past twenty years, European Partnerships have evolved into an impactful R&I policy instrument. With over 30,000 participations and over 6,000 projects, they have addressed grand challenges through a broad range of transformation-oriented research and innovation activities. As a tribute to the achievements of this period, the brochure showcases more than twenty impact stories of Partnerships over their 20-year existence.
The cases presented here cover only a very small fraction of the diverse impacts that the Partnerships have achieved over this time. While this selection is by no means exhaustive, it signals the importance of recording impacts and building narratives to grasp the full potential of the Partnerships as a strategic R&I policy instrument that brings multiple countries together to jointly address common challenges.
Across diverse thematic areas, the European Partnerships have mobilized investment and created leverage across the R&I system and beyond. Their activities have ranged from building vibrant innovation hubs and place-based transformations, to expanding international collaborations and strengthening the EU’s position in key enabling technologies.
The cases featured represent a broad thematic palette: from AI-driven decision-making to biodiversity, from energy to urban transitions, and beyond. They highlight a wide range of pathways to impact, such as technological and social innovation, and fostering market and policy uptake, among many others. European Partnerships have also excelled in expanding the R&I system, supporting SMEs and start-ups, creating effective governance frameworks and devising mechanisms to connect actors and accelerate action.
What brings the cases presented here together is the proven capacity of European Partnerships to generate long-term impact and create real world change.
As the R&I and broader EU priorities continue to evolve and new challenges emerge, they require responsiveness, agility, and collaboration. This brochure, therefore, can also serve as a source for reflection on how the Partnerships instrument can be best used to advance action on the Sustainable Development Goals and enable the EU’s resilience and sustainable competitiveness, building on the strengths, achievements and lessons learnt to date.
We encourage interested readers to further explore the diverse pathways that the Partnerships use to achieve their impact, beyond what this short publication could cover.
Annual Report on RTD Activities and Monitoring of Horizon Europe
The European Commission has published its Annual Report on Research and Technological Development Activities of the European Union and Monitoring of Horizon Europe in 2025. The report provides an overview of the EU’s research and innovation activities in 2025 and includes monitoring data on the implementation of Horizon Europe.
Across all European Partnerships, 1,345 grants had been signed by the end of 2025. These grants involved 9,568 unique participants and represented a total EU contribution of EUR 12.5 billion. The figures underline the scale of European Partnerships in Horizon Europe and their role in mobilising collaboration between public and private actors, research organisations, industry, funders and other stakeholders.
The report also provides a breakdown by partnership type. Since 2021, 10 active Joint Undertakings have signed 701 grants, involving 5,350 unique participants and amounting to an EU contribution of EUR 6.7 billion. Co-programmed European Partnerships accounted for EUR 4.3 billion in Horizon Europe funding, supporting 635 grants with 4,944 distinct organisations.
For co-funded European Partnerships, 18 grant agreements (of the partnerships) had been signed, representing EUR 1.5 billion in EU contribution and involving 754 unique participants (in the partnerships).
As there is currently no official data on projects funded by co-funded European Partnerships available in EU databases, the EC report does not list these projects. To address this issue, ERA-LEARN analysed the websites of co-funded European Partnerships and compiled the published data on closed calls. According to this unofficial data, 15 co-funded European Partnerships - which have published data on funded projects - have funded at least 1,700 projects or more to date.
These figures demonstrate the significant contribution of European Partnerships to the implementation of Horizon Europe. By aligning priorities, pooling resources and supporting long-term collaboration, partnerships help address major European and global challenges while strengthening the European Research Area.
Related Files
02/12/2024
Two Decades of European Partnerships - Our Achievements
ERA-LEARN
Case Study
Over the past twenty years, European Partnerships have evolved into an impactful R&I policy instrument. With over 30,000 participations and over 6,000 projects, they have addressed grand challenges through a broad range of transformation-oriented research and innovation activities. As a tribute to the achievements of this period, the brochure showcases more than twenty impact stories of Partnerships over their 20-year existence.