Who can Participate in Horizon Europe?

Who can Participate?

Horizon Europe is open to all legal entities. This means that individuals, researchers, businesses, institutions, universities, associations, organisations, etc. established in an EU Member State or a country associated with Horizon Europe can participate and receive funding from the programme.

In this context, EU Member States also cover overseas countries and territories associated with an EU Member State, such as Greenland.

• See list of overseas countries and territories at European Commission’s website

As in the previous framework programmes, a number of countries will be associated with Horizon Europe.  For continuity reasons it was decided that entities form countries, that are currently negotiating association agreements, are allowed to apply to calls for proposals from the beginning of the programme. The participation is ultimately conditional on the association agreement to have been completed by the time that their project grant agreement would have to be signed.

The following countries have an association agreements:

• Albania
• Armenia
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Faroe Islands
• Georgia
• Iceland
• Israel
• Kosovo (in line with UNSCR 1244/1999)
• Moldova
• Montenegro
• North Macedonia
• Norway
• Serbia
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Ukraine

The UK has also been granted associate status, but has not yet acceded to the agreement

At the time Switzerland is not covered by this arrangement and thus considered a 3rd country, see rules below.

Horizon Europe promotes international, cross-sectoral cooperation. For most programmes, a project requires participation of at least three partners from three different EU Member States or associated countries, of which at least one has to be from a Member State.

Exemptions are, among others, EIC Accelerator, EIC Strategic Challenges, and personal grants based on individual participation, as well as individual topics, which clearly state that participation is restricted to only Member States, Member States and specific associated countries/third countries. Entities, that are owned or controlled by entities in non-eligible countries may also be excluded from individual topics, if stated in the work programme..

International Consortia

For those programmes where several participants are requested in a project the main rule is that at least three partners from different EU Member States or associated countries must participate in an international consortium. Of these three partners, at least one must be from an EU Member State.

It is possible to include partners from the rest of the world, but in such case special rules on funding apply.

A large number of developing and emerging countries can receive funding on equal terms with participants from the EU. In the work programmes, reference is made to a list of countries in this category. These countries are, among others, from Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East, along with European countries outside the EU.

Countries not appearing in the above-mentioned list - such as the USA, Japan, the BRIC countries, and Switzerland - can also participate. These countries can only receive funding in special cases, provided that:

1. a bilateral agreement on research or technology cooperation has been entered between the EU and the country in question.
2. it is stipulated expressly in the call that applicants from these countries can receive funding.
3. you can convince the European Commission that exactly this partner is decisive for the successful completion of the project. This may be by adding very special competences or expertise to the project, giving access to special research infrastructure, access to a specific geographical area, or access to data.

However, in many cases partners from these countries will receive national funding for participation in Horizon Europe projects.