€1.4 billion extra for HE, €10 million extra for MSCA4Ukraine

The European Commission has decided to increase funds for calls II. the HE pillar and the EU Mission and for MSCA4Ukraine to support Ukrainian researchers who were forced to flee their country due to the Russian invasion.

The number of supported scientists will thus increase by 50, including doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. Special support will also be available to organizations that take on researchers and fellows who move with their families. In total, scientists from Ukraine are now scattered in 21 different countries (more information on MSCA4Ukraine and the full Press release).

As for the increase in the HE budget, it is not additional money for Horizon Europe as a whole, but only freed up funds for previously planned investments in EU Missions, which have been delayed due to negotiations between the Commission and Member States on their implementation, after an initial assessment mission progress in July 2023. As part of the negotiations, EU member states also secured a separate funding mechanism under Horizon Europe for the New European Bauhaus.

What exactly will the funds go to and what is new?

1. EU mission - additional €648 million for five research Missions in 2024

• • The first calls for 2024 will be opened between April 18 and 24. The deadlines for most calls are in September.
  • Exceptions are Cities Missions where some calls are open from Sep 17, 2024 to Jan 16, 2025 and Soils Mission with calls open from May 8 to Oct 8, 2024.
  • Work programme for the Mission is here.
  • Information days for Missions are held on the 25th-26th. 4.

2. New European Bauhaus - €20 million to lay the foundations for the New European Bauhaus (NEB) facility

• • EC hopes to launch it in 2025, the NEB facility will have a separate Work programme from 2025 to finance green culture initiative
  • these funds will be dedicated to the transformation of neighborhoods, regeneration, the use of new biological materials, assessment of the impact of the built environment on social relations and management models for the joint design of neighborhoods.

3. Open calls in II. pillar HE

• • four open-ended bottom-up call topics that allow researchers to choose what they investigate
  • the total budget is EUR 76 million in three Horizon Europe clusters: health (Cluster 1); climate, energy and mobility (Cluster 5); and food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture and environment (Cluster 6).

4. New European Partnership for Pandemic Preparedness - €50 mln

• • the call will be open on April 25 with a deadline of Nov 26 (details are in the updated Work programme of the Health cluster on pages 118-126)

5. MSCA and Widening Calls for 2025

• The next set of work programs will not be adopted until early 2025. In order to ensure the continuity of some annual challenges, the Commission has included some funding for 2025 in the current work programme.
  these are five calls within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) researcher mobility and exchange programme and two calls within the Widening Work Programme, namely Teaming for Excellence and ERA Fellowships.

6. Experimental actions:

• • €15m for an "experimental action" to put knowledge institutions such as universities or research organizations at the heart of EU Missions by making them key players in interdisciplinary research and innovation.
  • €20m from the NEB Fund to attract newcomers to the programme with the call "Transforming neighborhoods to be beautiful, sustainable and inclusive".
  • €20 million to support the programme for "early career researchers" (following the long-awaited comprehensive strategy)

7. European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage - €48 million

• • The call for innovative tools will be open between June 18, 2024 and Jan 22, 2025. Ten projects will be funded.

Source: Science-Business

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