Horizon Europe Pump Priming Collaboration between UK and EU Partners 2025

Funded by the UK government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

The British Academy with the support of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Royal Academy of Engineering are inviting proposals from UK researchers and proposals from UK led consortia containing EU/Associated Countries-based researchers to pump prime collaborations to support the effective uptake of the opportunities provided by the UK’s association to Horizon Europe. For the purpose of this call, Associated Countries include those countries in the process of associating, as shown on this list of participating countries in Horizon Europe.

Proposals are welcome in all disciplines – engineering, natural sciences, medical and health sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

Assessment will be undertaken over multiple rounds with applications submitted by Wednesday 4 December 2024, 17.00 (UK time) considered initially, then a second deadline (if funding remains available) of Wednesday 15 January 2025, 17.00 (UK time), then a third deadline (if funding remains available) of Wednesday 12 February 2025, 17.00 (UK time), and then a final deadline (if funding remains available) of Wednesday 5 March 2025, 17.00 (UK time). If there is a high number of applications submitted before the 4 December 2024 deadline, the Academy reserves the right to begin assessment prior to the formal deadline.

Innovate UK are leading a separate scheme focused on supporting SMEs to develop and join proposals. This is open to both Pillar 2 and Pillar 3 of Horizon Europe. The lead applicant of the Innovate UK scheme must be a UK-based businesses that meets the criteria of a Small Medium Enterprise (SME) and similarly, research organisations can be included in bids as consortia members. For more information, please visit the website.

Introduction & Explanatory Note

The UK’s association to Horizon Europe was a significant achievement that has been widely welcomed across the sector in the UK, as well as by the UK’s colleagues and counterparts elsewhere in Europe and beyond. It is imperative now that the opportunities that association provides are taken up swiftly and substantially. The Academy is aware that there are particular hurdles for UK-based researchers, innovators and institutions in bringing together partners and consortia for calls related to Pillar 2. This is why the Academy is pleased to be able to open a third round of this pump priming call.

The Academy fully understands the time and effort that is required to reach out to potential partners, to identify possible opportunities to collaborate on, to develop a co-designed proposal and to submit a high-quality application. The time this requires is often considerably more than the time a call may be open on the Horizon Europe Portal, especially given the catch-up UK-based partners may have to undertake given the UK’s recent association. The Academy is well aware of this and the importance that UK-based researchers, innovators and institutions place on having as much time as possible to prepare for Horizon Europe calls.

That is why in this call it will be possible for applicants to apply both for calls on the Horizon Europe Portal and in relation to the possibilities for future calls that the European Commission has set out in its Strategic Orientations documents for Clusters 1-6. For ease of reference, it is possible to review the various ‘Destinations’ set out in those documents in Annex 1 in the scheme guidance notes. The documents themselves via the link above do provide further information, which applicants should carefully review before applying.

[1] Destinations can be understood as a grouping or heading under which a number of future calls will be launched.

Aims

Horizon Europe is the largest ever EU Framework Programme for research and innovation, with a budget of over €95bn (2021–2027, excluding contributions from Associate Countries). Such EU programmes offer significant opportunities to access new knowledge, partners, markets, customers and suppliers.

This programme is providing pump priming funding to seed collaborations for applications to specific Horizon Europe topics in Pillar 2. The aim is to build collaborative activity between UK and EU/Associated Countries’ entities in Pillar 2 where the major consortia building type of applications in Horizon Europe are centred. This will help UK-based entities overcome the barriers to collaborative engagement with EU/Associated Countries’ partners to maximise the opportunities Horizon Europe presents. For the purpose of this call, Associated Countries include those countries in the process of associating as listed on the Europa website. Third country partners, such as Switzerland, can also be considered as appropriate, but projects and proposed consortia must provide confidence that they will address necessary eligibility and impact criteria.

The call is focused solely on Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness.

Eligibility requirements

Each project will be led by a named Principal Investigator (PI). The PI must be a researcher in the eligible disciplines for this call and from an eligible UK-based organisation. The PI is expected to direct and manage the grant and has responsibility for the overall project reporting requirements.

Proposals are welcome in all disciplines – engineering, natural sciences, medical and health sciences, humanities, and social sciences.

Proposals are encouraged and welcomed that involve working closely with any type of organisation eligible for Horizon Europe funding (based in the UK and/or the EU/Associated Countries), including SMEs, third parties, end users and similar bodies/organisations such as hospitals, libraries, regulators, commercial partners, creative industry partners, museums, local authorities and associations, NGOs, charities and companies as appropriate to the selected Call and Topic.

Value and duration

We are able to offer awards of up to £10,000. This will cover collaboration preparation activities to enable multinational consortium building, as well as costs for developing the project ideas and gaining a better understanding of the market opportunities.

The expectation is that this funding will be utilised in a variety of ways but could include feasibility studies, application advice and training, partnership building, and dedicated resource to take forward an application.

Application and Assessment Procedure

All applicants must register in the British Academy’s online Flexi-Grant system to enable the processing and assessment of their application. All applications must be submitted in English.

Within Pillar 2 applications for this pump priming funding can be used to in one of two ways.

• The first is Calls and Topics from the 2024 Work Programmes onwards (i.e. Calls and Topics with 2024 in the call code) that are listed on the Horizon Europe funding portal as either ‘open for submission’ or ‘forthcoming’. There are only a limited number of calls currently listed on the Portal, however, applications targeting them are most welcome.
• The second is to review the Strategic Orientations documents that the European Commission has published (and linked below), which give an indication of the content that future calls will focus on. For ease of reference, it is possible to review the various ‘Destinations’ set out in those documents in Annex 1. The documents themselves via the link do provide further information that applicants will need to review in order to submit an effective application.

From either source applicants may target any type of action and focus on any cluster in Pillar 2: 1 (Health), 2 (Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society), 3 (Civil Security for Society), 4 (Digital, Industry and Space), 5 (Climate, Energy and Mobility) and 6 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment).

Webinars

The Academy will hold a series of webinars related to the call and how to apply. The webinars will be on the following dates. To register your interest, please sign up here: https://forms.office.com/e/ZsZ1WZv7k7

• Tuesday 19 November 2024, 14.00-15.00UK time
• Wednesday 8 January 2025, 14.00-15.00 UK time
• Wednesday 5 February 2025, 14.00-15.00 UK time.