Horizon Europe strategy
The areas of funding priorities, partnerships, and missions of Horizon Europe are to be set in line with the strategic planning approach and take the form of a multiannual strategy. The European Comission stresses the importance of the planning to remain flexible in order to respond quickly to unexpected crisis or substantiated policy demands.
Thus, work has been ongoing on Horizon Europe’s Implementation Strategy, which presents the framework for carefully designed rules and effective processes throughout the life cycle of the programme and project. As the European Commission claims the Strategy focusses on the following objectives:
- Maximising impacts
- Ensuring greater transparency and further simplification
- Fostering synergies with other EU spending programmes
- Easing access through digital transformation and outreach
Horizon Europe's first strategic plan 2021-2024
The European Commission has adopted the first strategic plan for Horizon Europe, setting research and innovation priorities for 2021-2024. The strategic plan is one of the novelties in the new funding programme, which is developed to set the strategic orientations in the first four years of Horizon Europe and, thus, to ensure that EU research and innovation contribute to EU priorities: a European Green Deal, a Europe fit for the digital age, an economy that works for people, a stronger Europe in the world, promoting the European way of life, and a new push for European democracy.
Underpinned by international cooperation essential for facing global challenges, the strategic plan for 2021-2024 sets out the following four strategic orientations:
- Promoting an open strategic autonomy, by leading the development of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies, sectors and value chains
- Restoring Europe's ecosystems and biodiversity, and sustainably managing natural resources
- Making Europe the first digitally enabled circular, climate-neutral, and sustainable economy
- Creating a more resilient, inclusive, and democratic European society
To ensure the widest possible participation and optimize the overall impact of Horizon Europe, the strategic plan was prepared following a joint development process involving Member States, EEA members, the European Parliament, stakeholders, and the public at large.