The Committee for Open Science’s Europe and International College has published a note (in French) to help French stakeholders respond to Horizon Europe calls for proposals.

Horizon Europe is the European Union’s framework programme for research and innovation for the 2021-2027 period and functions through open and competitive calls for proposals. One of the Horizon Europe programme’s priorities is to continue focusing on Open Science and access to research results and data just like the preceding Horizon 2020 programme.

The first part of this note identifies and characterises a number of obstacles that may hinder French stakeholders’ responses to these calls.

Providing information on the call for proposals at a very early stage – when they are being drafted or even when their requirements are first defined – is generally considered to be a major factor in enabling institutions to develop their applications. Conversely, when information is only provided when a call for proposals is published reduces the time available to make credible applications which in turn leads institutions to refrain from taking part.

Also, the representation of French stakeholders in the winning consortia of calls for proposals does not currently reflect the full potential of French scientific communities, including in terms of Open Science, although France has made great progress in this area in the last several years. Despite these gradual advances, there still remains considerable room for improvement. As French representation remains insufficient, this also negatively impacts the knock-on effect observed in certain other European countries by which teams are set up that are trained, structured and big enough to be part of a consortium, take responsibility for a work package or even coordinate a whole consortium.

The second part of the note describes and qualifies the 2024 calls for projects which directly or indirectly concern Open Science to facilitate French applications to belong to upcoming consortia.