International Relations Office
Horizon Europe Connect Fund - New seed funding opportunity for European Partnerships and Networks
Summary
- The fund aims to support the development of high-quality proposals for Horizon Europe by facilitating early partner identification and capability mapping, particularly for UK, EU, or Horizon Europe Associate Country organisations. It also supports Early Career Researchers in developing European networks for future Horizon Europe proposals.
- Open to all three pillars of Horizon Europe, the fund targets senior investigators and early career researchers. Applications will be assessed based on the importance, creativity, and potential impact of the proposed research/workshop/staff exchange, its alignment with Horizon Europe calls, and the wider institutional benefits it brings.
Background
Horizon Europe is the largest transnational research and innovation funding programme in the world. It runs from 2021 to 2027 and involves more than 40 countries working in areas from climate change and health to artificial intelligence and quantum, with a budget of over €95bn (2021–2027, excluding contributions from Associate Countries).
The UK has now fully associated to the programme and will contribute an average of €2.43bn annually for the remainder of the programme (2024-2027). Imperial was one of the top ranked institutions for research funding awards under Horizon 2020, the predecessor programme to Horizon Europe which ran from 2014 to 2020, with grants under-pinning critical discovery science and technology innovation and impact across all four faculties.
Aim of the fund
- Support the development of high-quality proposals to Horizon Europe;
- Facilitate the early identification of partners and capability-mapping to ensure ideas align and that consortia are able to collectively respond to the themes set out in Horizon Europe Work Programme documents when calls emerge;
- Support Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to develop European networks with a view to developing Horizon Europe proposals in the medium to long-term.
Typical awards are expected to be in £2000-£6000 range. Budget requests should not exceed £10,000.
There are two streams available:
- Senior Investigator Awards
- Early Career Research Awards
Up to 50% of the Horizon Europe Connect Fund will be allocated to Early Career Researcher (ECR) proposals. This allocation is designed to support the development of new generations of research leaders by providing them with the resources and opportunities needed to build European networks.
Guidance
The funding can be used for:
- Costs of meetings or visits for UK, EU or eligible Horizon Europe participant organisations involved in proposal development;
- Outward visits for College Academics or Research Staff to a partner institution to develop consortia aimed at Horizon Europe funding;
- Inward visits for partner institution Academics or Research Staff to Imperial to develop consortia aimed at Horizon Europe funding.
- Funding for proposal development including contributions towards support services such as proposal writing;
- Travel and subsistence, including costs for participating in information days, programme boards, communities of practice and brokerage events directly related to Horizon Europe objectives;
- Funding to support capability-mapping that with the aim of targeting Horizon Europe programmes (e.g buyouts of a PhD student or Postdoc time);
- Networking events such as workshops, training academies and seminars to bring together ECR researcher communities to foster new links or strengthen existing European collaborations.