Explained
Research and research-based education provided by universities are major assets for the competitiveness of Europe, and a prerequisite to solve societal challenges and maintain value added of its products and services in the future. Universities and their local innovation ecosystem help materialise the transitions our society needs in terms of creating and circulating knowledge, upskilling talent and societal engagement; they are a crucial source of talents and knowledge for Europe’s innovation ecosystem.
Action 13 of the first ERA Policy Agenda (2022-2024) aims to “Empower Higher Education Institutions to develop in line with the ERA, and in synergy with the European Education Area”. A subgroup of the ERA Forum Commission expert group was tasked early 2023 to pursue the following objectives:
- Support inclusive and deeper cooperation between higher education institutions across Europe to accelerate institutional reform in ERA priorities, in particular strengthening research careers, improving knowledge valorisation, and supporting the digital transition.
- Better align Member States’ efforts to strengthen global visibility and competitiveness of their higher education sector, including via strong partnerships with other R&I and societal actors, addressing the long-term need to increase the research-intensity of Europe’s universities.
The vast majority of actions under the first ERA Policy Agenda are directly related to the work of the universities. Resources and tools that result from dedicated calls under Horizon Europe can be found under the dedicated sections. In addition, Horizon Europe also funds projects that address institutional transformation of alliances of universities, including, but not limited to European University Alliances, in a comprehensive way, e.g. the European Excellence Initiative calls.
On this page, you can find ongoing projects and upcoming calls for proposals, and reports with a selection of good practices on the research dimension from pilot European University Alliance projects.
Resources and tools
Report on good practices from European University Alliances Projects (pilot II): Projects funded under Horizon 2020: IBA-SwafS-SUPPORT-2-2020 call
This report presents a selection of good practices from the 22 Pilot II European University Alliance projects (alliances SwafS projects hereafter) funded under the Horizon 2020 IBA-SwafS-Support-2-2020 call.
Progress of University Alliance Projects: Projects funded under Horizon 2020 IBA-SwafS-Support-1-2020 Call - Pilot I
This report provides an analysis on the intermediate progress in the period of 2021 – 2022 of the 17 European University Alliances projects funded under the Horizon 2020 Science with and for Society IBA-SwafS-Support-1-2020 call - Support for the Research and Innovation Dimension of European Universities.
Explore Horizon Europe projects
Horizon Europe Work Programmes 2021-2022 and 2023-2024
HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-03: European Excellence Initiative (2023)
HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-05: European Excellence Initiative (2021)