Maria Pawlowska, PhD, is an expert in international research and innovation collaborations, with a focus on EU-Canada partnerships and Horizon Europe (m.pawlowska@visnea.org).

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It has been well over a year since Canada became associated with Horizon Europe – the biggest R&D program in the world – and there are still a lot of questions and perhaps even misgivings about the program. I’ve worked with European funding, and in Brussels directly, for almost 15 years, and there is truth to the claims about bureaucracy and tough applications. 

Having said that, Horizon Europe is an incredible opportunity for gaining considerable, long-term financing and joining international innovation networks. What’s more, Horizon Europe grants can cover payroll, all research activities, and there is no in-kind contribution required. Importantly, businesses can get up to 100 per-cent of their participation (including payroll) funded through it. 

All that stands in contrast with a lot of other funding available in Canada. What’s more, it presents a particularly worthwhile opportunity to encourage collaboration between academia and industry. This is not a coincidence,  as the purpose of Horizon Europe is to fund applied – rather than basic – research, aimed at solving existing challenges with practical, implementable solutions. 

In order to ensure that research is mobilized into practical market solutions, industry needs to be part of the equation. In Horizon Europe terms, that means for-profit businesses are welcome in consortia – and it’s not just a policy goal. According to EU data, in the first three years of Horizon Europe, SMEs received €6.6 billion (around Cdn$10.7 billion) – or 20 percent of the program funding allocated. It really is too good an opportunity to miss out on for Canadian businesses.   

Filling the gaps in Canadian innovation

Horizon Europe can be a tool to strengthen what we are already good at, and perhaps fill existing funding gaps.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization - Global Innovation Index 2025, Canadians can feel pretty good about themselves. We come in 17th in general and 6th and 7th respectively in university and industry collaborations, and university and industry international engagement. Where we punch below our weight, though, is in financing startups and scaleups. 

Horizon Europe can be part of the solution. Industry participation can be either a university startup or a Fortune 200 company – and everything in between. I have worked with multiple successful university startups which have received funding from European grants. This enabled them to innovate with money in the bank and grow their client base. 

In order to submit a Horizon Europe grant (which is always in response to a top-down call), researchers and businesses from at least three countries (but more often close to a dozen) come together to offer their unique, cutting-edge take on how to develop a solution to the presented problem. The topics range over six clusters and include:

• Cluster 1. Health
• Cluster 2. Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
• Cluster 3. Civil Security for Society
• Cluster 4. Digital, Industry and Space
• Cluster 5. Climate, Energy and Mobility
• Cluster 6. Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

The vast array of topics covered means there’s practically something for everybody. 

How Canadian researchers can get involved with Horizon Europe

There’s no denying that getting started with Horizon Europe can be difficult. Even the language used can be somewhat concerning to Canadians (for example, explaining “exploitation” plans – which would be called knowledge transfer in this country).

The easiest place to start is really your own inbox – if you have professional connections in the EU, now is the time to reach out. Canadians are seen as valued partners (or “consortium members”), and a simple email to the effect of “Hey, Canada joined Horizon Europe. If you’re working on any applications, I’d be happy to talk” can be a professional game-changer. 

It’s also worth looking at the Work Programmes to get an idea of what calls look like. We are currently waiting for the next set of work programmes to come out, but you can take a look at the drafts to see what’s in the pipeline. The drafts are unlikely to change much, so it’s worth spending some time on them to start thinking about where your organization might fit. 

The calls list the goals of each call. No one organization can ever deliver on all of them. 

What the European Commission wants is experts in their particular fields. So don’t be put off if 90 percent of a particular call is not something you know much about – that’s why there is a consortium. Consortia are supposed to bring together the top-tier players in their respective fields to create a dream team that’s greater than the sum of its parts. Working together, they can tackle some of the biggest problems facing humanity, be it climate change, cancer, soil erosion or batteries for EVs.  

Canadian-European partnerships to further industry-academia collaboration

The Canadian government has committed nearly €100 million (around Cdn$162 million) to Canadian participation in Horizon Europe, and the latest news from Brussels is that nearly half of that (€47 million, or around Cdn$76 million) has already been allocated to Canadian consortia members).

This is both very exciting – Canadian organizations are making use of this opportunity – but perhaps should also be a motivator for increased interest, as the vast majority of that sum (€39 million, or about Cdn$63 million) is going to a single project.  

Even though it may seem like a lot of work at first, the successful Horizon Europe grant recipient who would tell you that the application process wasn’t worth it is hard to find.  

We have two more years in the program, and there is data showing that Canadian participation is rising. It would be great to ensure that these funds are used to both spur additional collaboration between industry and academia in Canada, as well as meaningfully inserting Canadian innovators into cutting-edge international networks.

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