Horizon Europe: The new French Portal about European Programmes for Research and Innovation

This framework programme illustrates the determination of the European Union to “stand out in a context of fierce international competition, to offer a better visibility to research and cutting-edge innovation”. For the European Union, it is also a question of “attracting the best talents”, thanks in particular to “the implementation of competitive funding and to face up to current global problems”. In order to highlight the importance of this programme and the priority given to research and innovation, France has set up a portal entirely dedicated to Horizon Europe to provide useful information to researchers and scientists.

An accessible and operational site

The content of this new information portal is, according to its designers, written in French in clear, precise and factual language. The aim is to be operational in order to launch calls for proposals as efficiently as possible, to list events aimed at publicising these calls and to provide all the information likely to help project leaders from French research organisations.

The official website thus makes visible the new national support system for European programmes, in particular the network of National Contact Points spread throughout France, which will be designed to promote and raise awareness of the Horizon Europe programme among the research, development and innovation community.

But it is above all to encourage participation in a concrete way that the site will be useful to project leaders. An “I Participate” button (“Je participe”) provides access to key administrative, legal and financial information on how to participate in the new programme.

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A site structured in three main parts

Like the Horizon Europe framework programme, which is itself based on three essential pillars, the site is structured according to three main areas: 

• Scientific excellence, which is the first of these pillars, presents basic research projects through the European Research Council as well as funding for exchanges and scholarships for researchers under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. It also promotes the networking and development of European research infrastructures
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• Global issues and European industrial competitiveness, which are the main focus of Pillar 2, favour 'clusters', i.e. work and research related to different societal issues. These include: health, civil security, inclusive and creative society, digital industry and space, climate, energy and mobility, but also food, bio-economy and natural resources.
• Innovative Europe, placed at the centre of Pillar 3, is presented first of all as the launching pad for the new European Innovation Council, dedicated to “promising high-risk innovations”. This same section also includes a section on European innovation ecosystems, which aims to strengthen synergies in this field, as well as a focus on the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, which links research, innovation and education.