Introducing Horizon Europe, Successor to Horizon 2020

As reported on 24 April in Science|Business, the secret is out: European Commission officials are pitching Horizon Europe as the name for the next framework programme for research and innovation.

As reported on 24 April in Science|Business, the secret is out: European Commission officials are pitching Horizon Europe as the name for the next framework programme for research and innovation.

Although not yet confirmed, the name appears in draft Commission documents. It would replace the rather anonymous ‘Framework Programme 9’ title as the research programme has been called for over a year, and ensure what some Commission officials have privately referred to as the continuation of a successful brand (cf. Horizon 2020).

EU Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, is conscious of the need for a catchy name which will stick in the public's consciousness. In order to promote Europe's reputation in research excellence the Commission realizes that it must become more savvy in terms of branding and communication. For the new research programme, which will run between 2021 and 2027, we should therefore expect a sharper focus on programme branding via different communication channels to promote the fact that the research results were obtained with the support of EU funding. It is planned to reserve more funding for “open access to research results and data, availability to publications, knowledge repositories and other data sources.”

Proposals for the new research programme will be published in early June.