The Implementation of Horizon Europe
The Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science is involved with the implementation of the various subprogrammes in Horizon Europe through the following groups:
- EU programme committees
- Danish reference groups
The Horizon Europe Programme Committees
The European Commission sits at the head of the table in the 14 Horizon Europe programme committees (see the list of members below), in which the member states negotiate the work programmes and calls which result in the different parts of the framework programme. The member states are typically represented by delegates of national governments and national experts. Countries outside the EU that are associated with Horizon Europe, e.g. Norway, Iceland, Israel and Turkey, are also members of the committees.
The Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science represents Denmark in the programme committees along with a number of nominated experts who together seek to influence and draw up the best possible work programmes for Horizon Europe. The member states take part in the approval of the work programmes and participate in the strategic and political discussions across the framework programme.
Reference Groups for Horizon Europe
The reference groups (see the lists of members below – in Danish) are a Danish concept as well as an important part of the Danish representation of interests and the strengthening of Danish participation in Horizon Europe. The Agency for Higher Education and Science has appointed five reference groups for Horizon Europe: one strategic and four thematic. The five reference groups each match the programme committees with the highest priority: the Strategic Programme Committee and the programme committees for Health (Cluster 1), Digital, Industry and Space (Cluster 4), Climate, Energy and Mobility (Cluster 5) and Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment (Cluster 6).
Each group is appointed so that it reflects the landscape of stakeholders in a given field to the greatest possible extent. The individual members are nominated by their organisation/institution and appointed by the Agency for Higher Education and Science. Typically, the members are experts from knowledge institutions, public foundations, trade organisations and other authorities.
The reference groups are appointed in order to provide expert contributions to the negotiations in the programme committees. They are, correspondingly, consulted regularly about e.g. the prioritisation of calls in draft work programmes, including the draft work programmes for the five Horizon Europe “missions” and other issues of relevance to the Danish representation of interests.
The Strategic Reference Group plays a special role concerning the evaluation of the Horizon Europe partnerships including which partnerships Denmark should prioritise.
The Agency’s coordinators for each reference group and programme committee have simultaneously been appointed Denmark’s National Contact Points (“NCP”) for each thematic area, and they advise Danish stakeholders in that capacity. In this way, the correlation between policy, implementation and counselling is ensured.
Reference Group Members
See the list of members below (the lists are in Danish):
- Members of the Strategic Reference Group
- Members of the reference group for Health
- Members of the reference group for Digital, Industry and Space
- Members of the reference group for Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
- Members of the reference group for Climate, Energy and Mobility