Czech Republic in the Horizon Europe Programme in December 2023: 970 funded participations

As of 19 December 2023, the European Commission's eCORDA database recorded 970 funded participations for the Czech Republic in 699 Horizon Europe ("HE") projects. As of the same date, participants from the Czech Republic claimed a net EU contribution of €350 million. Among the EU Member States and countries associated to the HE programme, the Czech Republic has been for a long time placed on 17th position, both in terms of the number of participations and the net EU contribution. By comparison, Poland has long been 16th in both indicators (1,196 participations with a net EU contribution of €434 million), Slovenia is 19th in terms of participation (772 participations) and 18th in terms of net EU contribution (€256 million). The ranking of the Czech Republic, but also of Poland or Slovenia, is quite consistent with the overall economic performance of these countries - in terms of GDP per capita in purchasing power parity terms, the Czech Republic is 18th among the EU Member States and HE programme associated countries, Slovenia 20th (see the map diagram below).

Legend: Left – net EU contribution (in € million) to participants from particular country. Right – gross domestic product per capita in purchasing power parity (in international dollars).

Legend: Left – net EU contribution (in € million) to participants from particular country. Right – country’s position in the European Innovation Scoreboard 2023
Source: European Commission – 19th December 2023 (eCORDA) and 11th January 2024 (European Innovation Scoreboard 2023)
Prepared by: Vladimír Vojtěch, TC Prague, 24th January 2024

Overall, the Horizon Europe programme recorded 72,000 funded participations in 11,000 projects with a claimed net EU contribution of €31.5 billion in December 2023. Germany (8,335), Spain (7,988), Italy (6,970), France (6,826), the Netherlands (4,734) and Belgium (4,032) reported the highest number of participations. The highest net EU contributions were claimed by participants from Germany (€5.2 billion), France (€3.6 billion), Spain (€3.4 billion), the Netherlands (€2.9 billion), Italy (€2.7 billion) and Belgium (€2.2 billion).

The structure of the current (12/2023) participation in the HE programme is shown in the graph below. Participants from the Czech Republic reported 290 participations in Pillar I of the HE programme (Excellent Science), claiming €95 million. In Pillar II (Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness), 551 Czech participations with a net EU contribution of €184 million claimed. Within Pillar II, the highest participation was reported by the Climate, Energy and Mobility cluster (157 Czech participations with a net EU contribution of €70 million claimed) and the Digital, Industry and Space cluster (153 Czech participations and €41 million claimed).

Note: Budget of the Horizon Europe Programme and comparison of its overall spending and spending in the Czech Republic as of 19th December 2023
First column – HE programme budget in € million; second column – HE programme overall net EU contribution in € million; third column – net EU contribution in € million to HE programme participants from the Czech Republic; fourth column – HE programme overall number of participations; fifth column – number of participations from the Czech Republic in HE programme.
Legend: Top-down (i.e. from violet colour to light green colour) – Reforming and enhancing the European R & I system; Widening participation and spreading excellence; The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT); The European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE); The European Innovation Council (EIC); Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment; Climate, Energy and Mobility; Digital, Industry and Space; Civil Security for Society; Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society; Health; Research Infrastructures; Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), European Research Council (ERC).
Source: European Commission – eCORDA – 19th December 2023. Prepared by: Vladimír Vojtěch, TC Prague, 24th January 2024

By legal form, higher education institutions dominated among Czech HE participants in December 2023. They participated 399 times and claimed €173 million. The largest EU contributions were claimed by Masaryk University (€42 million), Charles University (€28 million), Czech Technical University in Prague (€19 million) and Palacký University in Olomouc (also €19 million). Czech enterprises and research institutions reported a similar number of participants - 227 companies and 212 research institutions. Enterprises claimed a net EU contribution of €81 million. Honeywell International s.r.o., which is a major participant in aviation joint undertakings (Clean Aviation, SESAR3), claimed net EU contribution of €21 million. Domestic research institutions claimed €72 million - therein The Institute of Physics of the CAS €13 million, the Biological Centre of the CAS € 7.5 million, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS € 7.3 million and the Institute of Biotechnology of the CAS € 4.6 million.

Project coordination plays an important role. As of December 2023, 157 projects were coordinated by Czech entities. For these projects, they have claimed a net EU contribution of €149 million. This is two fifths of the total net EU contribution claimed by Czech participants. Coordinators were most represented among higher education institutions and research institutions, with the coordination of projects bringing them around half of their net EU contribution.

Note: Participation of Czech entities in the HE programme as of 19th December 2023 accroding to their legal form and role
Form left to right – higher education institutions (number of participations, net EU contribution in € million), research institutions (number of participations, net EU contribution in € million), private for-profit companies (number of participations, net EU contribution in € million), public bodies (number of participations, net EU contribution in € million), other institutions (number of participations, net EU contribution in € million).
Dark blue: coordinators; light blue: other participants
Source: European Commission – eCORDA – 19th December 2023. Prepared by: Vladimír Vojtěch, TC Prague, 24th January 2024

The regional perspective and the structure of participants in each region remain stable. The highest net contribution is claimed by participants from Prague (€179 million) and Brno (€ 81 million). As of December 2023, participants from the districts of Olomouc claimed €20 million, Prague-West €11 million, České Budějovice €9.5 million and Ostrava €8.7 million. Prague is home to three-fifths of the enterprises and research institutions claiming EU contribution in the HE programme. The Prague and Brno higher education institutions participating in the HE programme claim a similar amount of net EU contribution (€68 and €65 million respectively, i.e. 40% each of the net EU contribution to domestic HEIs).

Note: Regional distribution of net EU contribution to Czech participants in HE programme as of 19th December 2023 according to their legal form and district of their seat
Legend: Net EU contribution (in € million) to Czech participants residing in particular district. Legal type – green: higher education institutions; blue: research institutions; yellow: private for-profit companies; violet: public bodies; grey: other institutions
Source: European Commission – eCORDA – 19th December 2023. Prepared by: Vladimír Vojtěch, TC Prague, 24th January 2024

At the end of this contribution, a brief mention of the participation of Czech entities in the HE project proposals should be added. Czech participations were recorded 4 163 times (in 3 127 projects), 925 of them as coordinators. The net EU contribution requested in project proposals by Czech entities amounted to € 1.8 billion.

Summary:
As of December 2023, the Czech Republic reported 970 funded HE participations with a claimed net EU contribution of €350 million. It maintains its long-standing position among EU Member States and countries associated to the HE programme. Domestic participants are dominated by universities - in particular universities based in Prague and Brno. Businesses and research institutions are similarly represented, with 60% of both types of organisations participating in the HE programme based in Prague. Project coordination plays an important role in the domestic participation in the HE programme, providing universities and research institutions with half of their net EU contribution.

Author: Vladimír Vojtěch, TC Prague, vojtech@tc.cz, 24th January 2024