Making Europe a leader in the digital circular and climate neutral economy is one of the key elements of the first strategic plan for Horizon Europe 2021-2024.

The European Commission has adopted the first strategic plan for Horizon Europe, the new EU research and innovation program worth €95.5 billion in current prices. The strategic plan is a novelty in Horizon Europe and sets out the strategic orientations for investment in the first four years of the program. It ensures that EU research and innovation activities contribute to EU priorities, including a climate-neutral and green Europe, a Europe fit for the digital age and an economy that works for people.

The strategic plan sets out four strategic lines of investment in research and innovation under Horizon Europe for the next four years:

• promoting open strategic autonomy by guiding the development of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies, sectors and value chains;
• restoring of ecosystems and biodiversity in Europe and sustainable management of natural resources;
• making Europe the first digital and circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy;
• creating a more resilient, integrative and democratic European society.

International cooperation forms the basis of all four lines of action, as it is essential to tackling many global challenges.

The strategic plan also sets out the European co-financed and co-programmed partnerships and EU missions to be supported under Horizon Europe. These partnerships will cover key areas such as energy, transport, biodiversity, health, food and the circularity, and will complement the ten Institutionalized European Partnerships proposed by the Commission in February.

EU missions will tackle global challenges that affect our daily lives by setting ambitious and inspiring yet achievable goals such as fighting cancer, adapting to climate change, protecting the oceans, making cities greener and ensuring the health of soil and food. Using a wide range of instruments across disciplines and policy areas, EU missions will tackle complex issues through research projects, policy measures and even legislative initiatives.

The orientations set out in the plan also relate to a number of horizontal issues, such as gender. The inclusion of the gender dimension will be a default requirement in the content of research and innovation throughout the program, unless it is specified that biological or socio-cultural gender may not be relevant to the topic in question.

Horizon Europe identifies funding opportunities for research and innovation activities through thematic calls for proposals and topics. The first calls for proposals will be launched in the spring of 2021 and presented at the European Research and Innovation Days that will be held on 23-24 June.