Co-funded European Partnership of Horizon Europe Programme - basic overview and view of Czech participation

Co-funded partnerships build on actions co-funded under the European Joint Programme (EJP) and ERA-NETs under Horizon 2020.

Co-funded partnerships combine funding from the EU, national public sources or other research and innovation funding sources. EU co funding is at a constant rate [typically 30%, in exceptional cases 50%] per grant agreement and is generated by eligible costs.

Co-funded partnerships involve EU Member States and associated countries, with research funders and other public authorities at their core. These partners constitute a consortium of national research funders and other national public authorities following a call published in the Horizon Europe work programme. The partners in the consortium define a common research and innovation agenda, which is implemented through joint calls for project proposals announced by the partnership to research institutions, businesses and other applicants and other common activities. These calls and their evaluation are organised centrally. The selected and successful projects are funded at national level (on the basis of rules agreed by the consortium partners). Each national funder funds successful applicants, researchers from their own country, in joint international projects.

All 16 co-funded European Partnerships are included in the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan. Estimated EU contribution to the 16 co-funded partnerships is € 2.3 billion.

According to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021/2022, 9 co-funded partnerships have been initiated. Their overview is given in Table 1. The funding amounts shown in Table 1 represent the financial resources expended to date on partnership projects and may not represent the total financial allocation over the lifetime of the partnership.

The next 7 co-funded partnerships will be launched with call topics in the 2023/24 Horizon Europe work programme. Their overview is presented below:

• European Partnership for Personalised Medicine
• European Partnership for Rare Diseases
• European Partnership for One Health / Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
• European Partnership for Accelerating Farming Systems Transition: Agroecology living labs and research infrastructures
• European Partnership for Animal Health and Welfare
• European Partnership for Agriculture of Data
• European Partnership for Safe and Sustainable Food Systems for People, Planet and Climate

Table 2 presents the Czech participation in the co-funded partnerships launched in 2021 and 2022. The table includes the Czech research funders, universities and other public authorities that represent these partnerships in the Czech Republic. The table shows that the Czech Republic participates in 6 partnerships announced in 2021 and 2022, while 3 co-funded partnerships remain without Czech participation. The amount of EUR 25.5 million € has so far been distributed among Czech researchers of successful projects funded through these 6 partnerships, more than a third of which comes from EU funds.

The calls of the co-funded partnerships provide Czech applicants (enterprises and research organisations) with an additional opportunity to submit projects together with foreign partners to international calls in various research areas. Co-funded partnership calls support international cooperation in research and development, allowing Czech researchers to share knowledge across Europe, gain experience and international contacts that can then be used, for example, in further cooperation or in the preparation of joint projects for standard FPs calls or other international programmes promoting research, development and innovation.

Author: Daniel Frank, frank@tc.cz, TC Prague