UK Earth Observation (EO) sector on Horizon Europe
Published 10 May 2024
© Crown copyright 2024
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-earth-observation-eo-sector-on-horizon-europe/uk-earth-observation-eo-sector-on-horizon-europe
Horizon Europe: introduction
Horizon Europe is the EU’s Framework Research and Innovation funding programme. It is the largest R&I funding programme in the world, with a budget of over £81 billion for 2021-27.
The programme is divided into three main parts:
- Pillar 1 supports excellence in science
- Pillar 2 focuses on solving global challenges through collaborative research and innovation
- Pillar 3 supports business growth and competitiveness
Other parts of Horizon include support for research infrastructure and widening participation. Key priority areas include food, bioeconomy, climate change, health, digital, transport and mobility, space, energy, industry, civil security and humanities. The programme is open to all types of organisations of all sizes.
Current Horizon opportunities for the earth observation sector
Funding opportunities under Horizon Europe can be found here. Space research is a fundamental part of the Horizon programme. As an associated country to Horizon, funding opportunities are available to UK organisations. There are currently several active Horizon Europe Space Calls which are relevant to the UK’s Earth Observation community:
| Nature of the call | Call details |
|---|---|
| Copernicus for Land and Water | Integrate current land products into land surface/use/cover change, and land planning and allocation models for different environments. Improve global hydrological monitoring/forecasting through sophisticated inland and coastal/shore hydrological satellite observation products. |
| Copernicus based applications for businesses and policy-making | Build on Copernicus data and services (and other sources) for business and policy applications: emergency, security, marine, land, climate, atmosphere. |
| Designing space-based downstream applications with international partners | New or improved products, processes or services capable of generating a marketable solution for the local market. |
| Customisation/pre-operationalisation of prototypes end-user services in the area Climate Change Adaption and Mitigation | Joint procurement of research and development services to reinforce public demand driven innovation in end-user services in the area of climate adaptation and mitigation. |
| Develop innovative applications to support the European Green Deal, building on meteorological satellite data | Development of new environmental information based on the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) and EUMETSAT Polar System Second Generation. |
UK Eligibility in Horizon Europe
On 1 January 2024, the UK became an associated country to Horizon Europe and Copernicus. UK organisations can bid into Horizon Europe with confidence that successful applicants will be covered through the UK’s association. More information on association can be found here.
UK organisations can participate on the same terms as other associated countries in most calls from 2024 to the end of the programme in 2027, unless identified in the topic description of the call.
For all calls with 2024, 2025, 2026 or 2027 in the call identifier (e.g. HORIZON-CL4-2024-SPACE-01), the EU funds all successful organisations for the project’s full duration. UK organisations may coordinate proposals and projects.
For calls with 2021, 2022 or 2023 in the call identifier (e.g. HORIZON-EUSPA-2023-SPACE), the UK Horizon Guarantee funds all successful UK organisations for the full duration of the project. UK organisations can coordinate proposals but not projects. Funded project consortia must contain the minimum eligible criteria plus the UK.
The European Commission have identified a small number of calls within Space and Quantum as strategically sensitive. Currently this means that the UK is excluded from these calls.
Horizon Europe: find calls for proposals
Calls for proposals can be found through the EU’s ‘funding and tender opportunities’ portal. You can find a list of Horizon non-space calls involving EU space programmes here.
Further support
Find support to help your organisation to successfully participate in Horizon Europe through the network of UK National Contact Points here (NCPs).
Check the eligibility criteria for topics in the work programme or the topic page on the participant portal. If you have any questions regarding exclusions, please contact ncp-space@iuk.ukri.org.