Improving Horizon Europe for its beneficiaries

Today the European Association of Innovation Consultants (EAIC) releases its response to the European Commission Consultation on the Past, Present and Future Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

EAIC sets out key challenges that applicants and beneficiaries frequently encounter when preparing a proposal and running a project under the current Framework Programme, Horizon Europe (2021-2027).

These  challenges relate to the following four themes: 

• Recognising professional project management
• Improving the Horizon Europe Standard Application Form
• ​Improving the European Innovation Council Accelerator Programme
• Fostering EU 13 Participation in Horizon Europe

“EAIC Members support thousands of beneficary organisations, many of whom are new comers to the Framework Programme”, says EAIC President, Pekka Koponen, “Today, we share this wealth of experience to improve Horizon Europe implementation and lay the ground for the preparation of its successor.”

Main recommendations - EAIC calls on the European Commission to:    

• Amend Horizon Europe rules for participation and allow the delegation of project management services, or its outsourcing, to another entity thus enabling the beneficiaries to benefit from this crucial support.
• Optimise the design of Horizon Europe template to give applicants a better chance to present their concepts, hereby raising the overall quality of proposals received by evaluators and ultimately ensuring that the best projects are awarded funding.
• Scrutinise the evaluation process (remote evaluation and jury interviews) of proposals under the European Innovation Council Accelerator scheme to ensure consistency.
• ​Maintain the actions under the current Widening Programme in Horizon Europe and ease industry access to it. 

The Statement can be downloaded from here.