Newcomers among Czech enterprises participating in the EU Framework Programmes

On 29 January 2024, the European Commission published the results of an evaluation of Horizon 2020 (the predecessor to the current Horizon Europe programme), which ran in period 2014-2020. The evaluation states on page 21, that "across the programme, around 50% of the total funding to private companies went to newcomers." The aim of this paper is to find out how this is the case for Czech companies participating in Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) and Horizon Europe (2021-2027) programmes. Newcomers are defined as organisations that did not participate in the previous FP7 (2007-2013) for Horizon 2020 or that did not participate in the previous two FPs for Horizon Europe.

A total of 212 Czech companies participated in the Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) programme. They reported 434 participations and a net EU contribution of €124 million. Of these, newcomers who did not participate in FP7 (2007-2013) accounted for 154 organisations with 212 participations and a net EU contribution of €49.9 million (see rows a + e in the figure below). This means that among the Czech companies participating in H2020, newcomers accounted for 49% of the participation and 40% of the net EU contribution.

As of 29th January 2024, the current Horizon Europe programme registered 147 Czech companies with 239 participations and €85 million in EU’s funding. There were 88 newcomers to Horizon Europe - i.e. companies that did not participate in H2020 or FP7. They reported 109 participations with a claimed net EU contribution of €27.4 million (see row f in the figure below). Among the Czech enterprises participating in Horizon Europe, newcomers accounted for 46% of the participation and 32% of the net EU contribution.

Approaching the task differently, of the Czech companies participating in the current Horizon Europe programme, 96 did not participate in the previous Horizon 2020 programme. These enterprises reported 119 participations in Horizon Europe with a claimed net EU contribution of €29.4 million (see rows c + f). This means that only 8 enterprises participating in Horizon Europe did not participate in H2020 in the period 2014-2020, but participated in FP7 in the period 2007-2013 (see row c).

24 Czech companies have continuously participated in FP7, H2020 and Horizon Europe. These enterprises have reported 79 participations in Horizon Europe and claimed €40.5 million in funding (see row d). This represents a third of the participations and almost half of the net EU contribution to Czech enterprises. In terms of sector and size, this is a diverse set of enterprises. It includes leading engineering companies (Škoda Auto a.s., TESCAN GROUP, a.s., EVEKTOR, spol. s r.o., Honeywell International s.r.o., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brno s.r.o, Doosan Škoda Power s.r.o.), medium-sized electronics companies (Argotech a.s., Institut mikroelektronických aplikací s.r.o.), consulting companies (AMIRES s.r.o., GRANT Garant s.r.o., FÉNIX TNT s.r.o.) and small enterprises.

Furthermore, in Horizon Europe are 27 companies that participated in the previous H2020 programme. These companies reported 41 participations in HE and claimed a net EU contribution of €15.1 million (see row e). This represents both one sixth of the participations and one sixth of the net EU contribution to Czech enterprises. In this case, too, the group is diverse in terms of sector and size, consisting of small and medium-sized companies as well as large industrial enterprises (Garrett Motion Czech Republic s.r.o., CRYTUR, spol. s r.o., Thales DIS Czech Republic s.r.o., SILON CZ s.r.o., GE Aviation Czech s.r.o., Zentiva, k.s., Eaton Elektrotechnika s.r.o., VALEO AUTOKLIMATIZACE k.s.).

Summary:

Compared to the H2020 European average, the share of newcomers in the Czech Republic, i.e. companies not participating in the previous FP7 programme, is 10 percentage points lower. In H2020, newcomers accounted for 40 % of total funding for private enterprises in the Czech Republic. In Horizon Europe, as of 29 January 2024, one third of total private enterprise funding was for newcomers. Reversing the role, enterprises, that participate in HE and participated in the previous two Framework Programmes as well, account for almost half of the net EU contribution to Czech enterprises in HE.

Author: Vladimír Vojtěch, TC Prague, vojtech@tc.cz, 04.03.2024