Under the Horizon Europe Work Programme “Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area”, the Hop-On facility opens doors for legal entities from low R&I performing countries, such as Portugal, to join ongoing collaborative R&I actions.
Deadline: 26 September 2024
The Hop-On Facility (HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-06-01) aims to improve the inclusiveness of Horizon Europe by involving more research institutions from the low R&I performing countries (widening countries) under Horizon Europe Pillar 2 (that encloses the clusters: 1-Health; 2-Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society; 3-Civil Security for Society; 4-Digital, Industry and Space; 5-Climate, Energy and Mobility; and 6-Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment) and EIC Pathfinder actions.
The main selection criteria are excellence and added value of the new partner performing a relevant additional task in the project. Please bear in mind that, to be eligible for Hop-On Facility, the project´s consortium cannot include a widening country partner (please read the note in the end for details). Moreover, all consortium partners need to agree on the accession of the new partner whereas the R&I relevance and complementarity need to be demonstrated.
Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:
– At the system level, it mobilises excellence in the widening countries, increases visibility of the participants from the widening countries, improves knowledge circulation, and reduces the lack of participation of the widening countries in specific thematic domains;
– At the organisation level, it opens up silos of established closed consortia, improves research excellence of the widening country’s institutions in specific fields, enlarges outreach of the participants’ R&I actions, and provides access to new talent pools;
– At the level of the beneficiary, new competencies and skills for working in transnational projects including research management and dissemination and exploitation are acquired.
If funded, the project application will trigger a Grant Agreement amendment. Also, there will be a budget increase in the project exclusively for the new partner, with a coordination fee of up to 10% of the widening budget for the consortium coordinator. European Commission estimates that an EU contribution between €100,000 and €600,000 would allow the referred outcomes to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal requesting different amounts.
You may find relevant projects to contribute to in the pool of the 135 new projects approved under Cluster 6 of the Horizon Europe program, which focuses on food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture, and environment. These projects aim to reduce environmental degradation, halt and reverse the decline of biodiversity, and better manage natural resources while meeting the EU’s climate objectives
We also want to highlight that the University of Aveiro already benefit from this funding mechanism with the approval of one project and is, currently, finalizing the administrative procedures for another one that was submitted by a CESAM researcher.
More information can be found in the EU Funding & Tender Portal here. If you want to apply, you may watch the recordings of the info day of “Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area” Work Programme here and consult the Work Programme for 2023-2024 here.
If you apply, please get in touch with us (cesam-gesciencia@ua.pt).
NOTE: As defined in the Horizon Europe regulation the widening countries Member States are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The widening Associated countries (on condition of an association agreement) are Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine. The widening outermost regions are: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte Saint-Martin, The Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands.