Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025-2027 analysis published

The HEU Strategic Plan sets out the policy priorities for Horizon Europe. Above all, for the work programmes covering Pillar II of Horizon Europe and its call topics. The current Strategic Plan covers the period 2021–2024.

The important aim of the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan is to promote consistency between the work programmes, EU, and national priorities and to achieve continuity and coherence of funding measures beyond the (bi-)annual duration of work programmes. The analysis is the result of a co-creation process between the internal services of the European Commission and the EU Member States.

The take-home messages of the analysis are:

• The EU remains a scientific powerhouse and has improved its overall innovation performance in the past seven years, even though it is falling behind China and the USA in terms of scientific excellence (i.e. world share of top 1% most-cited scientific publications) and of research and development expenditure as a percentage of GDP.
• The EU is lagging behind China and the USA as regards the digital transition, but it is among the world leaders of the green transition.
• Significant R&I investments are necessary to deliver on the European Green Deal and to preserve the EU’s open strategic autonomy.

The entire analysis is available here.

The basis for the analysis and the new Strategic Plan is the biggest ever public consultation on the past, present, and future of the European Research and Innovation Framework programmes 2014-2027, which was concluded February 23, 2023, and published April 19. 

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