Participation of Czech entities in selected other EU programmes – March 2025

The position papers responding to the European Commission's 1 December 2022 public consultation on the past, present and future of the EU Framework Programmes in 2014-2027 era often referred to the need for the Framework Programmes to be coherent with other EU financial instruments and programmes. Namely with Digital Europe Programme, EU4Health, LIFE, the European Defence Fund, the Innovation Fund, etc. The paper provides brief information on the participation of Czech entities in these programmes in the period 2021+. It thus updates previous contributions published on Horizontevropa.cz on 18 March 2024, 17 April 2023 and in Echo magazine No. 1/2024 (p. 57). The present paper deals with Czech participation in selected other EU programmes as of 25 March 2025.

The above table shows that Czech entities are now participating in about 6.2% of the projects in the Horizon Europe programme. Czech entities are also participating in the EU's climate and environment programme LIFE on the similar level. 53 projects in this programme have involved 90 Czech teams – most notably SEVEn, The Energy Efficiency Center, z.ú. (10 participations), CEE Bankwatch Network z.s., the Czech Technical University in Prague and ENVIROS, s.r.o. (4 participations each). The highest EU contribution was received by the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic (€23 million). Vojenské lesy a statky, s.p. (Military Forests and Estates of the Czech Republic), received €2.7 million and Masaryk University €2.3 million. The EU contribution of more than €1 million received CEE Bankwatch Network z. s., SEVEn, The Energy Efficiency Center, z.ú., the Ministry of the Environment, Beleco, z.s., the South Moravian Agency for Public Innovation JINAG, Centrum pasivního domu, z.s. (the Passive House Centre), and the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. 22 projects were coordinated by the Czech entities – the coordination resulted in €36.6 million for Czech LIFE participants (i.e. ¾ of all EU funding for Czech participants in the LIFE programme).

Czech entities participated in the Digital Europe programme to the same extent. The Czech Republic reported 102 participations (15 of them as coordinators) in 46 projects. The largest number of participations was reported by the Masaryk University (7 participations), Czech Technical University in Prague, VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Brno University of Technology (6 participations each) and CESNET, z.s.p.o. (4 participations). The highest EU contribution was received by the Czech Technical University in Prague (€5.5 million), CyberSecurity Hub, z. ú. (€4.1 million) and VŠB-Technical University Ostrava (€2.9 million). More than €2 million was claimed by the Brno University of Technology, Raiffeisenbank a.s., Masaryk University a Charles University. Other companies worth mentioning include IXPERTA s.r.o. and Avast Software s.r.o. with an EU contribution of approx. €1 million each. Regional innovation centres reported 7 participations in the Digital Europe programme, with the highest EU contribution received by the ARR-Regional Development Agency of Liberec (€590 thousand – EDIH NEB project), Central Bohemian Innovation Centre (€486 thousand - Brain 4 Industry project) and Moravian-Silesian Innovation Centre Ostrava (€309 thousand – EDIH Ostrava project). The 15 coordinated projects brought an EU contribution of €15.8 million to the Czech participants. This is two fifths of all EU funding for Czech participants in the Digital Europe programme.

Third, the same applies to Czech participation in the Creative Europe programme – Culture sub-programme. 73 teams from the Czech Republic participate in 69 projects, 18 of them as coordinators. Czech teams in the Creative Europe – Culture sub-programme claim an EU contribution of €7.6 million. MeetFactory o.p.s. has the highest number of participations and the highest EU contribution (4 participations and €2.2 million). Companies reported 17 participations with a net EU contribution of €1.5 million – the highest EU contribution is claimed by Signal Productions s.r.o. (€340 thousand), Větrné mlýny s.r.o. (€200 thousand) and iShowroom s.r.o. (€184 thousand).

Czech entities in the European Defence Fund reported participation of 30 teams in 23 projects. The EDF records project coordination of two Czech armament factories – these are projects aimed at expanding production. The Military Research Institute and the University of Defence each had three participations. The highest EU contribution was claimed by Explosia a.s. (€10 million), STV GROUP a.s. (€5 million), ecs Defence s.r.o. (€2.2 million) and Honeywell International (€2 million). In total, Czech companies reported 16 participations with an EU contribution of €23.5 million. This is four fifths of the EU contribution to Czech participants in the EDF.

In the EU4Health programme, 60 participations from the Czech Republic were registered in 51 projects. 6 projects were coordinated by Czech entities and the coordination brought them EU contribution of €5 million (i.e. two fifths of all EU funds claimed by Czech participants in the EU4Health programme). The highest number of participants was registered by the National Institute of Public Health (8 participations), the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic (7 participations each), the State Institute for Drug Control (6 participations) and Charles University (5 participations). The highest EU contribution was claimed by the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic (€3.2 million), the National Institute of Public Health (€3.1 million), Vysočina Region (€1.1 million), Charles University (€750 thousand) and the General University Hospital in Prague (€733 thousand).

On the other hand, Czech entities participate minimally in projects from the Innovation Fund. For the Czech Republic, the Innovation Fund records only 3 projects. The project focused on the production of clean hydrogen for transport and other sectors is coordinated by Veolia Energie ČR, a.s. VALEO VÝMĚNÍKY TEPLA s.r.o. is a common participant in the project aimed at the construction of a production line for electric vehicle battery coolers. AGC Flat Glass Czech a.s., a member of the AGC Group, plays the same role in a project aimed at the design and construction of a new hybrid glass furnace combining electric melting and oxy-gas combustion. The latter project is also the most costly – the Czech participant claims a net EU contribution of €12.2 million. Among the new EU Member States, Poland is the main participant in Innovation Fund projects (13 participations in 9 projects with an EU contribution of €378 million). Six participations in five projects with an EU contribution of €138 million Croatia has registered. Bulgaria registers two participations in one project with a claimed EU contribution of €190 million. (The amounts claimed by Bulgaria and Croatia through cement industry projects under the Innovation Fund are almost on par with the amounts claimed by these countries in the Horizon Europe programme.)

In previous similarly focused papers, we compared the level of Czech Republic’s participation in Horizon Europe projects with the level of its participation in other EU’s programmes. In this paper we compare the Czech Republic's participation in individual EU programmes with other countries (see table below). The application of this approach comes out rather unfavourably for the Czech Republic in all programmes, as it is around the median value or slightly below it. In terms of participation in projects, the Czech Republic ranks 15th-17th among the 27 EU Member States in the individual programmes; in participation in LIFE programme’s projects the Czech Republic ranks 13th, and in participation in projects of the Innovation Fund it ranks 19th.

Summary:

Czech entities are involved in about 6% of the projects in the Horizon Europe programme. The smaller ones – LIFE, Digital Europe and Creative Europe’s Culture sub-programme – also have a similar level of Czech participation. Participation of Czech entities in the Innovation Fund is below average. On the other hand, in the European Defence Fund and EU4Health programme, Czech participation is above average compared to the participation in the Horizon Europe programme. In other EU programmes – as in Horizon Europe – the amount of EU funding claimed by Czech entities is strongly influenced by project coordination.

Author: Vladimír Vojtěch, TC Praha, vojtech@tc.cz, 01.04.2025