On 10th May, the European Commission has adopted the amendment to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022, increasing the budget by nearly €562 million to further support EU Missions towards innovative solutions to green, health and digital challenges and more actions to boost the European innovation ecosystem. The programme's budget for 2021 and 2022 now reaches a total of nearly €16 billion. This will be translated into 17 new calls covering Mission Cancer, Mission A Soil Deal for Europe, Mission Adaptation to Climate Change and Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030. This includes a joint call comprising the latter two Missions, as well as additional actions supporting all five Missions, including the Cities Mission.
Furthermore, actions have been taken to to support researchers previously active in Ukraine. Under the new MSCA4Ukraine scheme, part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), €25 million will allow displaced researchers to continue their work at an academic or non-academic host organisation in the EU Member States or in countries associated to Horizon Europe.
Moreover, the amendment specifies in the General Annexes that legal entities established in Russia, Belarus, or in non-government controlled territories of Ukraine are not eligible to participate in actions supported by Horizon Europe in any capacity. Exceptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis for justified reasons.
Finally, the amendment adds several new actions to support Europe's innovation potential. For Horizon Europe, European Innovation Ecosystems, there will be a continuation of WomenTechEU with a tripling of the budget (€10 million) to support more than 100 women-led start-ups this year and a new action on creating and nurturing angel investing in the EU (€2 million). For Cluster 2 ‘Culture, creativity and inclusive society', this includes the support to create collaborative platforms and networks for the culture and creative industries (€6 million), the social impact assessment of green transition policies (€3 million), and innovative solutions for the future of democracy (€3 million) as well as supporting the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (€1.5 million). Other minor adjustments to the Work Programme have also been added for a total of €3.2 million.
The first round of the upcoming calls will open on 12 May 2022 and the second will open on 24 May 2022.
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