Within the new funding line "Hop on" in the Horizon Europe part "Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area (HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-ACCESS-07-01)", partners from widening states - where Portugal is included - can participate in already approved projects from Pillar 2 and EIC Pathfinder. The new partner should bring added R&I value to the project and have a specific work package allocated. The EC previews a 200k-500k budget for the new partner and an additional 10% budget for the coordinator.
With this call, the European Commission aims to increase the participation of widening countries in specific thematic areas of Horizon Europe.
Another goal is to facilitate access to EU networks and internationalization capabilities for institutions from widening countries and thus improve the R&I excellence and international visibility of these institutions.
It is expected that the proposals contribute to the following impacts:
At the system level: mobilize excellence and increase the visibility of the participants from the Widening countries, improve knowledge circulation, and reduce the lack of participation of Widening countries in thematic domains.
At the organization level: open up silos of established closed consortia and improve research excellence of the Widening country’s institutions in specific fields.
At the level of the beneficiary: create new competencies and skills (from working in transnational projects) including research management and dissemination and exploitation of results.
Although the application process is rather simple - with the approval of all the consortium partners, the coordinator of an already approved project, that has no partners from a widening country, applies for the inclusion of the additional partner – the main challenge for the widening country institutions may be the expression of interest in joining an already going project or to get in touch with the coordinators.
On the other hand, the coordinators, who know best than anyone the needs of their ongoing projects can also contact those partners that may be impactful for their projects.
This is a very interesting novelty for Horizon Europe and AlmaScience is keen to participate, as one of AlmaScience’s strategic goals is to increase the participation in HE projects and expand its network, contributing to EU goals and putting scientific development and innovative solutions at the service of the community, so if you’d like an additional partner, contact us!
To learn more and for Funding and IP information, contact
Dr. Tatiana Costa
Funding, IP, and Innovation Manager