Horizon Europe budget gets 4 billion boost

The European Parliament managed to increase the budget of Horizon Europe by 4 billion euros to about 85 billion euros. Additionally, the Erasmus+ student exchange program is topped up with 2.2 billion euros, health spending in EU4Health gains 3.4 billion euros and investment fund InvestEU gets an additional 1 billion euros.

The European research community was disappointed when, after a tense summit in July, EU leaders settled on an 80.9 billion euro budget for the successor of Horizon 2020. Originally, the European Commission had proposed a 94.4 billion euros budget, while Parliament wanted 120 billion euros and the League of European Research Universities even more. It’s not surprising, therefore, that LERU Secretary-General Kurt Deketelaere called the 4 billion euro top-up “peanuts.”

The deal still needs to be approved by both Parliament and member states. Currently, Poland and Hungary are vetoing the seven-year budget and corona recovery plan, of which the Horizon Europe budget is part.