"An additional €55 Bn would have been needed to fund all high-quality Horizon Europe proposals" (EC)

"Horizon Europe raised plenty of interest with many high-quality applications and higher success rates, but 7 out of 10 high-quality proposals still cannot be funded. An additional €55 Bn would have been needed to fund them all", can one read in the European Commission factsheet on the implementation of Horizon Europe since 2021, published in May 2024. The document highlights key figures for the programme between 2021 and 2023.

The average proposal success rate in Horizon Europe has risen to 16%, up from 12% in Horizon 2020. While success rates differ across pillars, there are no significant variations among country groups, states the document.

The quality of proposals has also seen an improvement, with 49% rated as high quality by external experts, compared to 46% in Horizon 2020.

"Only 33% of the high quality proposals could be funded with the available budget, even if this has improved from Horizon 2020 (25%). To promote support through other means at national or regional level, 4,622 high-quality unfunded proposals have received Seal of Excellence certificates."

It also states…