Aurora supports letter to European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel for transparency on R&I budget allocation

Aurora Universities welcomes additional funding to the Horizon Europe (HEU) budget. Aurora Universities also support the letter by EuroTech Universities to the European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and the Director-General of Research and Innovation Jean-Eric Paquet to provide more transparency on the HEU budget. Horizon Europe is the European Union’s main funding program for Research and Innovation and a vital source of funding for researchers and innovators across Europe.

The letter argues that Horizon Europe’s current budget allocation process lacks transparency and that they are progressively becoming a financial source for other European Commission-led priorities outside of the programme. This covers the European Chips Act, the Health and Emergency Response Agency and lately, the Hydrogen Valley initiative under the REPowerEU Plan. Together, these three initiatives will be financed through HEU with a budget of close to EUR 1bn. This redirection of funds from HEU to other European Commission initiatives gives uncertainty to researchers and innovators across EU member states concerning the availability of funds. In addition, budget allocations are becoming increasingly complex, making it difficult to understand how much money is available for research.

The letter calls on the Commission to improve the transparency of Horizon Europe’s budget by adding a set of indicators to the Horizon Europe Dashboard, which can help assess in real-time how much of the HEU budget has already been committed to which initiative and how much has been paid. This would also provide visibility as to the commitments targeting the original HEU objectives or objectives outside of the programme. Read the full letter here.