EU NEIGHBOURS. Informal exploratory talks have begun between the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG R&I) and those third countries who have formally expressed an interest in becoming associated to the new Horizon Europe Framework Programme.
These follow the political agreement on the text of the Horizon Europe (HE) regulation reached by the EU co-legislators on 11 December 2020.
Initial discussions took place on 25 January with Georgia, on 26 January with Ukraine, and on 28 January with Moldova. Meetings were also planned for 2 February with Armenia. The four countries were all associate members of the previous Horizon 2020 programme.
For Ukraine, the meeting also included a discussion on association to the Euratom Research and Training Programme. Other meetings have also been scheduled and the exploratory talks will be held with all these third countries in due course.
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Horizon Europe will be the largest transnational programme ever supporting research and innovation. The new EU research and innovation programme will have a budget of around €95.5 billion for 2021-2027), a 30% increase on the previous research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020.
