Zaharieva says Horizon deal must cut time to approve research grants

Ekaterina Zaharieva, the European Commissioner for startups, research and innovation, has insisted that any agreement on rules for the EU’s Horizon Europe research programme for 2028-2034 must reduce the time for researchers to get grant proposals approved.

Speaking after a meeting of the EU’s ministers for research in Brussels on 29/05/2026, Zaharieva said: “We have to show in articles [of the Horizon regulation] we are serious about simplification,” adding that it was essential that the next programme shortened the “time to grant”.

The Commissioner noted that, despite the fact that ministers had been unable to agree on the future rules at the Council, they all agreed on the need for simplification and to avoid unnecessary delays.

Zaharieva said that the ministers had made “good progress” in discussions and that she was optimistic that they would reach an agreement on Horizon soon.

Nicodemos Damianou, Cyprus’ deputy research minister, said that the Council had been unable to reach agreement on the Horizon Europe rules because differences remained on the involvement of member…