Horizon Europe participation

A basic requirement is to read all the documentation of the call for proposals to understand its objectives and themes and to make sure that your project idea is in line with what the call aims to achieve. It is also crucial to keep the European point of view in mind and highlight that your proposed project:

• Will solve a problem
• Goes beyond the state of the art
• Has European added value and impact
• Builds upon results from existing EU and national projects
• Represents excellence
• Achieves policy or economic impact
• Includes collaboration across disciplines and/or across the value-chain

It is also crucial to allow enough time for preparations before the submission deadline: ideally, you should start six months in advance. Finally, it is fundamental to respect all formal eligibility conditions (number of pages, etc.).

As your National Contact Point (NCP), we are available to advise you further on all these points and help you increase the chances of success of your proposal.

The main steps include:

• Identifying the relevant call for proposals and preparing a competitive proposal together with your project partners
• Submitting your project proposal through the European Commission portal
• Your proposal will be evaluated by a group of experts who recommend to the European Commission which proposals should be retained for funding. Three general criteria of utmost importance in the evaluation process are the following:
  1. Excellence
  2. Impact
  3. Quality of implementation
• If your proposal is approved for funding, you will sign a contract for the project with the European Commission
• During the implementation, your project will be monitored by the European Commission and you will be required to provide reports on your progress and expenditures.

As the National Contact Point (NCP), we can guide you through the whole process.

We advise you to:

• Read EU publications (White Papers, Communications, etc.)
• Refer to running or finished EU research projects and their results
• Become an expert evaluator of Horizon Europe project proposals
• Become familiar with the work programmes

Get in touch with us to identify the major networks that you should follow. As the National Contact Point (NCP), we regularly organise events to provide information on Horizon Europe, upcoming calls for proposals or theme-specific questions. We also advise EU project participants on a bilateral basis, and are available for in-house presentations.