Horizon Europe: An Overview for SMEs

Horizon Europe is the European Union’s framework programme for research and innovation. It is the largest public research funding instrument in Europe, spanning a multi-year period with a very substantial budget. For an innovative SME it is not only a source of non-dilutive grants: it is also a way to enter research and industry networks at European level. But it is a structured world, with precise rules, and it should be approached knowing how it is built.

How it is organised

Horizon Europe is built on three pillars, each with a different logic:

Excellent Science: supports frontier research (for example the grants of the European Research Council) and researcher mobility. This is the typical terrain of universities and research centres.
Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness: this is the pillar of collaborative projects on themes such as health, digital, climate, energy, mobility and food. It is organised into thematic clusters, and this is where many SMEs find their place, inside consortia with partners from several countries.
Innovative Europe: hosts the European Innovation Council (EIC), with instruments such as the EIC Accelerator, more oriented towards startups and companies with disruptive innovations.

To these are added cross-cutting actions to widen participation and strengthen the European Research Area.

Where an SME fits in

An SME can take part in Horizon Europe in two very different ways:

In the collaborative calls of the second pillar: you join a consortium together with other companies, universities and research centres from different countries, to respond to a specific call (a “topic”). The funding covers a share of the project’s eligible costs. Here what counts is the role within the consortium, the alignment with the objectives of the call, and the soundness of the partners.
Through the EIC, with instruments dedicated to individual high-potential companies, where the logic is closer to that of investing in a single scale-up.

The two paths require different preparations. The collaborative project rewards the ability to work in a network and to fit into a shared objective; the EIC instrument rewards the ambition and scalability of the individual company.

The question of Swiss participation

For companies based in Switzerland there is a point to clarify before any move: the association status of Switzerland with the European framework programmes has changed over time and must be checked at the time of the call. In several situations national funding mechanisms or bridging solutions are provided to enable participation. The practical rule is: check the current conditions for the specific call, without taking either full association or exclusion for granted.

What it takes to be competitive

Horizon Europe calls are selective and the evaluation revolves around recurring criteria:

Excellence: scientific and technological quality, ambition relative to the state of the art.
Impact: what concrete results the project produces, for the market and for society, and how they are disseminated and exploited.
Quality and efficiency of the implementation: work plan, division of tasks among partners, risk management, consistency between resources and objectives.

For an SME, an often decisive element is the exploitation plan: how the company will turn the project’s results into economic value. A consortium that is strong on science but vague on industrial impact starts at a disadvantage.

Typical mistakes to avoid

Joining a consortium at the last moment, with a poorly defined role.
Ignoring the specific objectives of the call and proposing your own project “as is”.
Underestimating the administrative aspects: eligible costs, reporting, contractual obligations.
Not caring about impact: describing it generically instead of with measurable results.
Tight timelines: building a consortium and a solid proposal takes months.

In summary

Horizon Europe is the EU framework programme for research and innovation, on three pillars.
SMEs take part above all in the collaborative calls (consortia) and through the EIC.
Swiss companies must check the current participation status for each call.
The winning proposals are strong on excellence, impact and implementation, with a credible exploitation plan.

How we help you

We help SMEs find their way among the instruments of Horizon Europe, assess whether a collaborative call or the EIC is the right path, and build the proposal with the logic of those who evaluate it. It starts with a free grant readiness check. Assess your options.