1 minute read / January 31, 2024
Horizon 2020, the EU’s Research and Innovation programme running from 2014 to 2020 with a budget of nearly €80 billion, made a major contribution to building an EU society and economy rooted in knowledge and innovation and benefitted Europeans far beyond what could have been achieved at national or regional level.
Enabling rapid response to the COVID-19, Ebola and Zika outbreaks and making a decisive contribution to climate science are just some examples of the tangible impact of Horizon 2020. Each euro in costs linked to the programme will ultimately bring five euros in benefits to EU citizens by 2040, proving the high value for money of investment in research and innovation for the European society.
Horizon 2020 funded more than 35,000 projects over seven years, calls attracted over a million individual applications from 177 countries. The programme played a crucial role in fighting climate change and saw 64.4% of its budget invested in sustainable development. Horizon 2020, together with its predecessor FP7, is the second largest provider of climate science in the world.
