European Partnerships are long-term initiatives in which the European Commission joins forces with member states, industry or research organisations to jointly address a specific topic – for example clean energy, health, key digital technologies, transport or agriculture. They issue their own calls with their own rules and timetable, which are not part of the main work programme, so applicants are often unaware of them. The budget of these partnerships forms a significant share of the funds earmarked for research and innovation. For companies, the practical recommendation is to find out which partnership covers their field, monitor its website separately and consider membership in it, because members have advance insight into upcoming topics. The list of all partnerships is public and is worth going through once when planning research activities.
See also: Horizon Europe, Horizon Europe clusters, Consortium in a European project.
