European Partnerships manage to pool resources within the European Union to address common challenges, contributing to increased investments in EU priorities.
In the context of ongoing discussions on the future European Research and Innovation Framework Programme (FP) 10, and the critical assessment of European Partnerships in the recently published Draghi report, on 19 September 2024, the second edition of the report on the Performance of European Partnerships under Horizon Europe, the so-called Biennial Monitoring Report (BMR) 2024, was published.
The BMR, elaborated by DG Research and Innovation and a Commission Independent Expert Group, includes data from 27 Member States and Iceland, Norway, and Turkey as well as 43 European Partnerships, which also feed into the interim evaluation of Horizon Europe. It provides evidence to guide the implementation of partnerships and to assess the new approach of European Partnerships under Horizon Europe. Two additional reports are planned, one to be published in 2026 and another in 2028.
This year’s edition keeps the leading indicators from the first edition of 2022 (see SwissCore article) to assess the implementation and achievements of the European Partnerships and thus ensure consistent and ongoing monitoring during the Horizon Europe programme period.
Overall, the report mentions that European Partnerships continue to be a cornerstone of the European Research Area as they have the potential to align Research and Innovation agendas in the European Union. It highlights that the European Partnerships are pooling resources within the European Union to address common challenges, such as the green and digital transition and to enhance the EU’s resilience, where joint action is needed and which no single nation or company could tackle alone.
The report also indicates that the European Partnerships help to avoid duplication of investments and fragmentation of the research and innovation landscape in the EU.
In general terms, it can be said that the European Union invests significantly in European Partnerships, reaching €24.9 billion from Horizon Europe (representing 26% of the overall Horizon Europe budget), leveraging additional investment from partners of around €40 billion, leading to an increasing investment in EU priorities.
Moreover, for all partnerships, the overall leverage resulting from activities is 1.63, meaning that every euro invested from the EU budget in the partnerships attracts an additional 1.63 euros from other sources (via calls and additional activities). This indicates that the European Partnerships contribute towards the objective of reaching 3% GDP goal of country R&D investment.
Concretely, regarding co-funded European Partnerships, it is emphasised that different funding agencies of the Member States and Associated Countries coordinate and jointly plan significant parts of their national R&I investments and target them towards EU priorities.
Additionally, as foreseen for the series of BMRs, this edition adds a specific cross-cutting topic on European Partnerships and their technological sovereignty as well as the international position of European Research & Innovation, which is particularly relevant in the current political European agenda. In this sense, 74% of the European Partnerships indicate that European strategic autonomy/technological sovereignty is very relevant to their actions and that 12% of the overall budget of European Partnerships is foreseen for collaborations with non-European partners.
Finally, the report includes country fiches of 27 Member States, plus Iceland, Norway and Turkey, and 44 European partnership fiches.