The European Commission has added €500 million to Horizon Europe, taking the research and innovation programme’s budget for 2026 and 2027 to around €14.8 billion.
The extra funding was announced alongside an expansion of the programme’s scope, including two new cross-cutting funding calls addressing areas such as AI-driven digital platforms for Europe’s energy system, skills for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and research on biodiversity impacts linked to clean and digital industries, the Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.
The two new calls are “Transformative Change Towards a Nature-Positive Economy and Society”, with a budget of €237 million, and “Bridging Actions 2027”, with total financing of €260 million.
The Nature-Positive call will fund 11 researchand innovation actions linked to the EU’s biodiversity goals and a 10% biodiversity spending target set in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025–2027.
Reports point to scale of funding and new participants
The Commission also published two monitoring reports on the programme’s performance and participation.
Since launching in 2021, Horizon Europe has invested €61 billion in grants and a further €1.3 billion in equity across nearly 23,000 projects involving more than 34,000 organisations, including 20,000 companies.
More than €11 billion has gone to the private sector, while most funding overall has been awarded to universities and research centres.
Projects funded under the programme have produced more than 32,300 peer-reviewed publications — most openly accessible — and have supported more than 151,000 early-career researchers, including PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers.
A separate report found that 55% of beneficiaries are new to EU research and innovation programmes, with two-thirds of these newcomers being businesses.
The report also noted that newcomers take part in an average of one project, compared with multiple grants for more experienced organisations.
Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zaharieva said the programme was helping “more than 151,000 young researchers build their careers” and “20,000 companies turn ideas into solutions, products and jobs”, adding that “more than half of beneficiaries” were participating for the first time.
