Making Horizon Europe Work Smarter

Making Horizon Europe work smarter: dialogue on implementation and simplification with Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva

As part of the Commission’s new approach to better implementation and simplification, Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, is engaging directly with stakeholders through Implementation Dialogues.

In-person participation is by invitation only. For online participation, please register here.

About

The theme of the dialogue will be implementation and simplification of Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme.

The event will bring together beneficiaries of Horizon Europe, research support offices, university administrations and umbrella organisation active in the EU research and innovation policy to reflect on the progress made, remaining bottlenecks and planned measures for further simplification. It will offer the opportunity to gather direct feedback on key implementation topics and help shape the final phase of Horizon Europe (2026-2027) as well as inform the design of its successor programme.

The centrepiece of the Dialogue will be a set of thematic discussions in three consecutive blocks, focusing on three key steps in the client journey of Horizon Europe:

1. Proposal submission: Gathering feedback on the submission process of proposals in Horizon Europe, as well as options to simplify it.
2. Proposal evaluation: Understanding the experience of applicants with the evaluation process in Horizon Europe, including the selection of experts, as well as possibilities to reduce the burden and streamline the process.
3. Simplified Cost Options: Building on the large-scale introduction of simplified costs options (e.g. lump sums) in Horizon Europe, which has significant simplification potential especially for SMEs and newcomers, participants will be invited to share their experience and suggest measures for improvement.

A summary will be available after the event.

For more information and registration, visit the event page here