The national approach to the European Union’s new research and investment programme, Horizon Europe, is launched today (25 March) by European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel, and Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, TD.

The Horizon Europe research and innovation programme will be the biggest ever undertaken in Europe with a budget of €95 billion for a multidisciplinary programme that will run until 2027.

Speaking at the launch today, Minister Harris said:

“We want Irish innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs to be at the centre of this programme and to fulfil their research and innovation ambitions, scale their companies, and support a green recovery.”

There is a budget of €7.7 billion for health research. The health programme is focused on helping citizens stay healthy in a rapidly changing society by promoting positive health behaviours as well as transforming the health care system.

The HRB and Enterprise Ireland will host an online event for an in-depth look at the Horizon Europe Health Cluster on 27 April 2021.  Please Save the Date.

According to Dr Mairead O Driscoll, Chief Executive at the HRB,

“The HRB will play a lead role in delivering this health research agenda for Horizon Europe; contributing to the policy agenda and creating awareness and supporting the Irish health research community to compete for funding. We look forward to working jointly with the National Support Network through Enterprise Ireland to support our health researchers to compete and to continue to be successful in Horizon Europe health.

European and international collaboration and engagement is a strategic priority for the HRB which will be taken forward in Horizon Europe through dedicated research and innovation funding calls, a Mission in Cancer and EU co-funded partnerships.”

Irish health researchers have been successful in securing almost €85 million through Horizon 2020 working with international partners in a broad range of areas such as:

  • Mental health and wellbeing in the workplace
  • Improving the quality of life for people with palliative care needs
  • AI solutions for cancer survivorship quality of life
  • The use of stem cells to prevent the development of osteoarthritis
  • e-health solutions to enable patients to proactively self-manage their chronic diseases

We look forward to building on Ireland’s success in securing EU funding for health through Horizon Europe. Read more about Irish researchers success under Horizon 2020.

Contact points:

*The HRB will be contributing to policy agenda through the National Delegate role (Dr Patricia Clarke, pclarke@hrb.ie) and supporting competitive applications through one of two National Contact Point roles (Ms Kay Duggan-Walls, kduggan-walls@hrb.ie). The HRB will work jointly with Enterprise Ireland who will provide an additional National Contract Point (NCP) (Dr Martha Cahill).