Horizon Europe, EU's research and innovation programme for 2021-2027, is proving to be a major driver of economic and societal benefits, according to an interim evaluation report published by the European Commission.
The multi-year research and innovation (R&I) programme with a total budget of €93.5 billion is based on excellence, meaning that only the best proposals are selected. In terms of economic growth, every euro of EU contribution is estimated to generate up to €11 in GDP gains by 2045, the Commission wrote in its press release.
At its halfway point in January 2025, the programme has funded over 15,000 projects with a combined budget of more than €43 billion. The Commission highlighted projects such as fuel cell electric buses in European cities, new antibiotics, and accessible artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for the scientific community.
80% of projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC), which is part of Horizon and supports excellent frontier research, have led to scientific breakthroughs or major advances. Since their launch in 1984, EU’s R&I programmes have also supported 35 Nobel Prize winners.
“Horizon Europe is delivering on its promise to drive innovation and strengthen Europe’s competitiveness,” commented Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation on Wednesday (30 April). “Its strong returns and measurable economic impact clearly demonstrate its success, providing real benefits to citizens across the EU.”
For estimating long-term economic effects, the evaluation used three macro-economic models providing different GDP multipliers over the years. In all models, the impact on GDP peaked after some years and then declined. In one of the models, the estimated return in GDP gains was indeed high but the other models showed lower GDP multipliers over the years until 2045.
Another finding in the evaluation report concerns closing the research and innovation divide among EU Member States. More than half of the EU Member States are defined as Widening Member States (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia) because of their lower research and innovation performance.
The share of the ‘widening’ Member States in collaborative projects has risen to 58% in Horizon Europe compared to 47% under the previous programme Horizon 2020. Their share of total funding has also increased but still four ‘non-widening’ Member States (Germany, France, Spain, and the Netherlands) have received over half of all funding so far.
In terms of success rates (percentage of approved applications), the overall EU average during 2021 – 2024 was 20.3 % with Belgium ranking first with 24,1 %, followed by The Netherlands (23,1 %), France (23 %), Germany (21,9 %), Denmark (21,9 %) and Austria (20,8 %). The average success rate among the ‘widening’ countries was 18 %, with Slovenia, Czechia, Hungary and Estonia approaching the EU average.
In a report in 2022, the European Court of Auditors concluded that special measures in the Horizon programme cannot on their own create the changes needed in the Member States to unlock excellence and give them better access to EU funding. The crucial factor determining a country’s performance is considered to be its national R&I investment levels.
The option of obliging research partnerships to include participants from countries lagging behind has some difficulties, the audit team told The Brussels Times. An important aspect according to the auditors is to provide the means through the widening measures to participants from less performing countries to become more competitive in applying for funding and participating in R&I projects.
Besides EU Member States, associate countries and some non-associated third countries participate also in Horizon. Associated countries account for 12.6% of applications (mostly the UK, Norway, Türkiye, Israel, and Serbia), while third countries represent 5.6% (mostly Switzerland, US and China).
The average success rate among associated countries is 18,9 % but no breakdown by country was published in the evaluation report. Most associated-country applications were from the United Kingdom (6.1% of total applications and 48.5% of associated-country applications).
Calls to cancel research operation with Israeli partners have had a small effect and Israel continues to take active part in Horizon. Israeli researchers and companies secured €1.1 billion in funding from the Horizon Europe program between 2021 and 2024. 390 Israeli researchers have been awarded ERC grants.
Dimiter Tzantchev, EU Ambassador to Israel, commented recently that, “Israel’s high-tech leadership and the EU’s strong research base make Horizon Europe a win-win”. He underlined the importance of ‘Science Diplomacy’ in addressing common challenges as a means to bring peace and stability to the Middle East region.
The interim evaluation is a Commission self-evaluation (staff working document) but draws on a broad evidence base, including extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis. It is based on an open public consultation with nearly 1,700 replies and over 1,000 interviews with project beneficiaries.
