Brief look at oversubscription rate of budget in Horizon Europe programme

The scientific community has long time a strong interest in the Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation. This is also true for the ongoing Horizon Europe programme. The data in the table below show that the commitment of research teams and individuals to participate in international research far exceeds the capacity of this programme. The oversubscription rate of calls, i.e. the proportion of the total financial entitlement of applicants to participate in Horizon Europe to the total budget of calls, is 4.7. In other words - if all the submitted project proposals were funded, the budget of the Horizon Europe calls would have to be increased approximately 5 times. Of course, it is not desirable in reality that all submitted project proposals should be funded, as the emphasis on high research and innovation quality of the project proposals is a specific feature of the Framework Programme. The budget of the calls evaluated so far guarantees funding for about 20-21% of the project proposals submitted - see our previous analysis. The overall oversubscription rate of the calls in Horizon Europe programme also corresponds to these values.

From the above overview of Horizon Europe clusters and priorities, it is evident that the greatest pressure for funding from the Horizon Europe budget is present in some of the European Innovation Council (EIC) calls. The interest of the research community and private companies to use funding to support risky, new emerging and disruptive innovations was enormous during this period 2021 – 06/2022. The researchers have also shown great enthusiasm for participation in the calls of the cluster, which covers the social sciences and humanities in the Horizon Europe programme. The discrepancy between the high interest of researchers specialising in the humanities to participate in the FPs and the relatively low budget of the calls in which they could apply can be the reason for their frequent initiatives to increase the chances and space for the implementation of projects in this field of research. Those parts of the Horizon Europe programme that provide funding for excellent research, the mobility of outstanding researchers and projects aimed at a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to addressing civil security issues have also been at the forefront of the research sector's interest.

The second table includes the 15 Horizon Europe calls in the period 2021-06/2022 with the highest ratio of the total financial requirement of applicants to participate in a given call to the total budget of that call. In these 15 calls, the ratio is between 7 and 15, meaning that a seven to 15-fold increase in the budget of these calls would fully cover the funding requirements of all Horizon Europe applicants. The calls, where the interest of the research community has exceeded their budget many times over, concern e.g. the area of advanced research on breakthrough technologies (EIC Pathfinder Open call - HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDEROPEN-01), the strengthening of cooperation between innovation ecosystem actors to improve support to innovative enterprises, research on European cultural heritage and cultural and creative industries and health research. The ERC, MSCA and Widening calls are also attractive to researchers.

It can be interesting to compare the expected (estimated) number of project proposals provide by the EC (author's note: I do not know the methodology of this estimate) and the number of project proposals submitted in the reality. The expected and real numbers of project proposals are very similar for some calls and quite different for others. It can be seen that in most cases (11 out of 15) the estimated numbers of project proposals are lower than the actual numbers.  Even without knowing the methodology for estimating the number of project proposals, it can be concluded that the interest of researchers to participate in international projects was higher than expected. This is clearly visible in the call under European Innovation Ecosystems (HORIZON-EIE-2021-SCALEUP-01).

In conclusion, although the overall success rate and therefore the chances of participating in international projects in Horizon Europe are higher than in previous FPs, it is still true that it can be extremely difficult for many research teams and international consortia to succeed and subsequently use the funding from this Framework Programme. This is due to the limited funding opportunities of the individual calls, the low number of potentially funded projects, the high demands on the quality of project proposal submissions and the highly competitive international environment in the FPs.

Author: Daniel Frank, TC CAS, frank@tc.cz, 26/10/2022