International cooperation is one of the key elements for the European Union’s research and innovation strategy. Participation in Horizon Europe pillar 2 (Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness ) projects explicitly requires you to have international partners. Horizon Europe partnerships usually involve collaboration with partners from other EU countries or countries associated to the programme. Perhaps you are wondering under which conditions it would make sense to involve partners from third countries and under which conditions, especially as far as the eligibility for receiving funding is concerned. Read on to find some clarifications and practical tips.
The European Commission has committed to a global openness of cooperation in research and innovation in response to new priorities in a changing world, as explicitly stipulated in its dedicated Communication on Europe’s strategy for international cooperation in a changing world. Herein, the EU’s economic benefits and the goal of providing its citizens with key technologies and services are named among the reasons. Horizon Europe is one of the main vehicles to implement this global openness. Yet, certain rules and exceptions apply.
The participation of third countries in Horizon Europe projects offers several benefits, both for the EU, its participating entities as well as for the participants from third countries. The advantages include for example:
Most Horizon Europe Calls for Proposals are open to participants from around the world. However, the eligibility for participation in Horizon Europe from third countries does not automatically mean that they can get funding from the programme.
We have to distinguish between several groups of non-EU countries.
A regularly updated list of associated countries, as well as the classifications which third countries falls into the category of the low and middle income countries (as classified by the World Bank according to their per capita income) can be found here.
Participating organisations from the remaining third countries only receive funding if this is provided for in the work programme or if the European Commission considers their participation to be essential for the implementation of the project. Arguments to justify this include extraordinary expertise, research infrastructure, data or access to specific geographical environments.
One solution how to get funding for entities from these remaining third countries can be complementary funding mechanisms. A number of countries have set up such schemes, including for example Australia, India and Japan. The funding given by these countries usually cover only a selected part of Horizon Europe, in some cases very specific Calls for Proposals. A full list of currently available support schemes and their scope can be found here.
While most Horizon Europe funding will go to EU Member States and countries associated to the programme, particular Calls for Proposals may even encourage or explicitly require participation from non-associated third countries. These calls often target global challenges that require wide-ranging and/or cross-border collaboration.
Some examples for Calls for Proposals where participation of third countries in Horizon Europe has been explicitly requested include recent Calls within Cluster 5 (Climate, Energy and Mobility) involving African partners in projects related to the green transition and energy access in Africa, or Calls within Cluster 6 (Food, Bio-economy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment) addressing global soil health or food safety in Africa.
When involving a third country entity, attention needs to be paid to the general eligibility conditions for Horizon Europe. For example, in collaborative projects within pillar 2, the consortium for Research and Innovation Actions and Innovation Actions usually must include at least three legal entities from different EU Member State or associated countries (whereas at least one of them must be based in an EU Member State). However, exceptions may be specified in the Horizon Europe work programme, therefore you will need to check on a case-by-case basis.
As a general rule, when participating in a Horizon Europe project, non-EU participants need to comply with general rules as stipulated in Art. 10.1 of the General Model Grant Agreement, such as fundamental rights, ethics, environmental and labour standards, intellectual property rights, etc.
Specific and temporary exceptions may be in place which can prohibit countries to participate in Horizon Europe, for example ongoing EU sanctions against countries for human rights and other violations. Also, restrictions and protection measures concerning particular sectors of economic activities and/or countries may exist (e.g. in relation to 5G networks). Consequently, in such exceptional cases certain countries are either excluded from participating or some additional conditions need to be fulfilled. Currently applicable restrictions are stipulated in the Horizon Europe Work Programme’s General Annexes under point ‘B - Eligibility’.
When you apply for Horizon Europe funding and not all partners are eligible to receive the funding from the programme, you have to watch out for the following when filling out the application form and budget table:
On the one hand, you have the ‘beneficiaries’ of the (future) Horizon Europe grant who would receive funding. The partners whose costs are not reimbursed are ‘associated partners’ (not to be mixed up with partners from ‘associated countries’ whose costs are being reimbursed!). Still, they need to register in the EU Funding and Tenders Portal to receive a participant identification code (PIC) which is obligatory for the submission of the application form. Another aspect to keep in mind is that ‘associated partners’ cannot be the coordinator of a consortium.
Although ‘associated partners’ are not eligible to receive funding and will later-on not sign the grant agreement, their role and tasks within the consortium need to be described in part B of the application form. Their tasks (such as the tasks of all consortium partners) will have to be fulfilled once the project is being implemented as they are contractual components of the grant agreement.
In the budgetary table, costs of participants from countries which are not eligible for funding (Associated Partners) must be included either in the column ‘Own resources’ or ‘Financial contributions’ as appropriate. Costs which will be covered by a different funding body (other than the EU), such as for example by a complementary national funding scheme should be included in the column ‘Financial contributions’.
Involving international partners from third countries within a Horizon Europe consortium can have particular advantages, for example as far as the achievable results of research and innovation projects are concerned. Being aware of the rules and conditions can benefit both EU and third country participants by avoiding mistakes during the application and benefitting from optimised cooperation and funding arrangements as well as impact of the project.
This article is written by Astrid Mechel, EU Funding Expert.
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