Horizon Europe

The ALLEA Working Group Horizon Europe has been discontinued as of March 2021. The newly established ALLEA Working Group on the European Research Area has incorporated some of the activities previously carried by the Horizon Europe Working Group to contribute to the further development of the ERA, its political framework, implementation and monitoring.

Towards the next EU Research and Innovation Programme

The world’s biggest challenges, like climate change, artificial intelligence, data governance and many others, are global challenges that cannot be solved at the national level alone. Europe and the European Union therefore provide a unique platform for open and excellent cross-border research funding, complementing national funding schemes.

The European Commission is now moving rapidly towards the finalisation of the next EU Framework Programme, which will define the future of the largest research funding system in the world. Through its Working Group Horizon Europe, ALLEA provides significant input into developing the EU’s proposed framework for research funding within the “Horizon Europe” programme. ALLEA is a recognised and respected interlocutor on all aspects of European Union research funding and continues to make visible contributions on behalf of the European academies.

The Working Group particularly seeks to ensure that any successor research programme to Horizon 2020 is developed with the interests of the “Wissenschafts”-community in mind and provides for full representations of the Social Sciences and Humanities.

Programme of action:

  • Engaging with the European Institutions on the development of Horizon 2020’s reviews and evaluations, as well as discussions for post-Horizon 2020 successor programme(s), the next being Horizon Europe (2021 – 2027);
  • Encouraging deliberation and foresight within the ALLEA member academies on the fields and activities in which EU funding will be a priority within the period 2020 to 2030, and to develop suggestions following such deliberation which can be delivered to the EU Institutions in a timely fashion to contribute to the shaping of new programmes of EU research funding;
  • Producing regular updates for Member Academies and for the ALLEA Board on progress in achieving the objectives of the Group and also to identify instances in which member Academies may wish to work in their national contexts;
  • Taking into account at all times the position of the humanities and the social sciences in any post-Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme(s).

Recent activities

ALLEA, via its Working Group, has proposed amendments to the legislation of the Horizon Europe Framework Programme. The detailed comments focus both on the specific wording of the legislative instruments and the policy orientations which underpin them. ALLEA submitted the academies’ input to the European Commission and to the special rapporteurs and other relevant members of the European Parliament. Several of the comments found their way into later drafts, often in conjunction with the contributions of other bodies and science organisations.

The group’s main statements include:

  • Supporting the ERC and its request for an increased budget.
  • Reiterating the value of interdisciplinarity, the humanities and social sciences and their integration throughout the programme as well as the need for a single cluster for these disciplines.
  • Broadening the definition of innovation to involve all forms of knowledge.
  • Broadening the understanding of research infrastructures to include human capital research infrastructures.
  • Improving gender balance in research and decision-making.
  • Supporting fundamental research and the principle of excellence as the most important criterion for research funding.

  • Revd. Professor John Bell, British Academy (Chair)
  • Professor Maarten Prak, ALLEA Board member, KNAW
  • Professor Axel Börsch-Supan, Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities
  • Professor Graham Caie, Royal Society of Edinburgh (UK), former ALLEA Vice President
  • Professor Ali Çarkoğlu, Bilim Akademisi (The Science Academy, Turkey)
  • Professor Alberto Conte, Turin Academy of Sciences (Italy)
  • Professor Marta Estrada, Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona (Spain)
  • Professor Ottmar Ette, Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities
  • Professor Andrea Evers, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (Netherlands)
  • Professor Tibor Frank, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
  • Professor Gábor Hamza, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
  • Professor Muhamedin Kullashi, Kosovo Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Professor Marcella Frangipane, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy)
  • Professor Thomas Olechowski, Austrian Academy of Sciences
  • Professor Simona Pekarek Doehler, Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences
  • Professor Gevorg Poghosyan, National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia
  • Professor Kerstin Sahlin, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
  • Professor Birgitta Svensson, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities
  • Professor Przemysław Urbańczyk, Polish Academy of Sciences
  • Professor Krista Varantola, Council of Finnish Academies, ALLEA Vice President
  • Professor Didier Viviers, Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (Belgium)

Related Publications

ALLEA Statement on the Guiding Principles for Framework Programme 10

ALLEA Statement for an ERA of Freedom and Excellence

Delivering Horizon Europe

Living Together: Missions for Shaping the Future

Developing a Vision for Framework Programme 9

Embedding the Social Sciences and Humanities in Horizon 2020

Comments on the European Commission’s Communication on ERA