1. What are the five “Missions” and why should they be considered?

Consider missions as problem-based portfolios that have 2030 objectives; cancer; climate adaptation; ocean and water restoration; climate-neutral and smart cities; and soil health. Although you need not be submitting to a mission-specific call, making your use-cases, datasets, or demonstrators mission KPIs helps to bolster your exploitation story and enables your project to become more policy-relevant.

2. What now is the structure of the Horizon Europe?

There are three pillars and a horizontal strand of widening participation:

Pillar I: Excellence science (ERC, MSCA, research infrastructures).

Pillar II: Collaborative R&I that is driven by challenges within six clusters (Health; Digital/Industry/Space; Climate/Energy/Mobility, etc.).

Pillar III: Going big on innovation (EIC Pathfinder/Transition/Accelerator, EIT KICs).

Widening & ERA: Making Europe stronger to enhance capacity, reform and mobility.

3. What is different with evaluation and reporting?

The traditional Excellence-Impact-Implementation lens has not disappeared, but panels have higher demands of crisper “activities – outputs – outcomes” chains and open-science plans (called repositories, metadata and data access). The dissemination and exploitation are followed beyond the grant using key exploitable outcomes. Reduced number of generic assurances, more pronounced milestones and adoption, direction.

4. Lump-sum grants: easier or more difficult?

Both. Instead of reporting real costs, a work package is completed which results in payment. There is disappearance of timesheets, and increase in delivery risk. The remedy: chop large risky WPs into smaller pieces, establish internal done criteria, and phase prototypes/data sets, such that you can say results are done in a piecemeal fashion, as opposed to at the conclusion.

5. What about budgets?

Horizon Europe will consist of a 2021-2027 envelope of approximately EUR95.5B. Funding rates: Research and Innovation Actions are normally fully funded (100%), Innovation Actions (100% to non-profits). MSCA and schemes still have unit-cost logics. Joint projects are planned on work-package and task budget, which suits the lump-sum mentality.

6. The partnerships were redesigned – what should coordinators observe?

Less, more strategic partnerships (co-programmed, co-funded, institutionalised). Each has got its SRIA, KPIs and regulatory/standardisation workstreams. When one of the topics makes mention of a partnership, read its SRIA first – it is usually the hidden evaluation lens.

7. Open science and open data: What is now a requirement?

Real-time access to peer-reviewed journals.

Plan Living Data Management (FAIR-compliant) having repositories, access regulations and metadata.

More and more reproducibility resources: software, laboratory protocols, negative outcomes. In the case of sensitive data, controlled-access repositories have to be pre-defined. Slogans are not expected, but tangible, citable results by the reviewers.

8. Equality between the genders, broadening participation, and morality – mere check-box?

Not anymore. Gender Equality Plan is usually formal. Actions that are widened finance mobility, teaming, twinning, and ERA chairs; adding credibility to widening partners. Ethics addresses information control, dual use, and do not harm, will cause significant harm – mitigate the plan going as granular as the technical risk.

9. Recommendable heuristics in writing that would work with Horizon Europe?

Restrict the pages with a maximum of 2-3 promises on each page with a metric.

Name instruments, datasets, protocols – no imprecision such as platforms.

Measurability: planned releases, TRL advancements, benchmarks, standardisation contributions, number of users onboarded. Offers that can be put into effect on Day 1 are better than wordy, hopeful accounts.

10. Why would a specialized SME such as MIC be a value addition?

Two levers: uptake and feasibility. MIC creates end-to-end (chips, flow control, sensors, automation), fabricates custom devices, and creates demonstrators – work packages conceived to bench without drifting. When we are here, the success rate is usually doubled as the reviewers will witness actual prototypes, realistic Gantt charts, and plausible adoption pathways.

11. Microfluidics tip: impressing Horizon Europe panels.

Be precise in numbers: rates of droplet generation, percentages of the fabrication, stacks of fabrication, limit of detections, benchmarking strategies. Bind secondments and pilots onto actual instruments and datasets. MIC has the option to co-design chips, construct control electronics and provide first-month prototypes – de-risking lump-sum claims and enhancing the credibility of exploitation.