Horizon Europe
Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
On this website, our team offers you an overview of the programme part Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area (ERA, DE/ EN). You will find further information on the whole programme part on the website of KoWi (EN). This programme part promotes the exchange and networking of researchers and scientific institutions in order to mitigate the uneven distribution of research and innovation capacities within the EU. The participation of researchers and scientific institutions from regions with a low research and innovation performance is to be increased in Horizon Europe as compared with the predecessor programme Horizon 2020. For example, the following funding instruments are available in the area Widening participation and spreading excellence to achieve these objectives:
COSTEuropean Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST (EN)) is a transnational initiative aimed at European networking and is funded by Horizon Europe. It is open to all scientific disciplines. COST Actions provide funds among other things to organise workshops, conferences, meetings, training schools and short scientific exchanges. COST does not fund research activities.
It has a bottom-up and single stage application procedure. A special aspect of already approved COST Actions is the feature to include new members into an existing consortium. COST Actions provide funding for up to four years.
COST Actions offer several advantages for researchers, for example:
- They facilitate contacts with European partners that may result in joint initiatives in the area of research and innovation e.g. publications or project proposals.
- They provide a variety of opportunities in terms of career development that can be especially useful for early career scientists.
You will find further information on the COST funding instrument on the website of the National Contact Point for COST (DE). Moreover, you can use the search function of the COST data base (EN) to browse through all of the approved COST Actions in order to get a sense of the funded topics and also to find potential project partners.
ERA Chairs are to be established in scientific institutions located in regions that exhibit a low performance in research and innovation, clearly showing potential for excellent research. These chairs are offered to excellent researchers as an incentive to change to institutions in such regions.
Further information (DE)
Teaming supports the establishment and the expansion of excellence centres in regions having a low research and innovation performance that will cooperate with leading European research institutions.
Further information (DE)
Twinning aims at strengthening a specific research area of a scientific institution in a region having a low performance in research and innovation. It seeks to do so by establishing links between at least two leading institutions in the relevant field in Europe.
Further information (DE)
The area Reforming and enhancing the European Research and Innovation system funds measures for the integration of crosscutting topics in European research and innovation policy. These concern, for example, Open Science, Citizen Science, Gender Equality, Diversity, Ethics and Integrity, International Cooperation, and Foresight Activities. In some cases, researchers are themselves not eligible to submit proposals but they can indirectly profit from the funded measures. You will find further information on this area on the website of the National Contact Point for Reforming and enhancing the European Research and Innovation system (DE).