What is Horizon twinning?

Twinning aims to foster networking activities between research institutions from Widening countries and first-rate counterparts from EU Member States or Associated Countries.

What is the difference between Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe?

One of the biggest changes in the Horizon Europe proposal template is the reduction in the number of pages. Project applicants will now have 45 pages to present their project in detail, compared to 70 in the previous Horizon 2020 programme. Thus, some parts have also been merged to shorten the length of the proposal.

What is a twinning project?

Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results through peer to peer activities.

What are widening countries?

Countries that are low performing in the area of research and innovation (70% of the EU average) are considered to be Widening countries.

Can the UK participate in Horizon Europe?

The UK’s association to Horizon Europe In January, the government announced that the UK will associate to Horizon Europe. The EU is still in the process of formalising the UK’s association. But UK-based applicants can begin applying straight away.

What makes a successful twinning proposal?

Successful Twinning proposals will have to clearly outline the scientific strategy for stepping up and stimulating scientific excellence and innovation capacity in a defined area of research as well as the scientific quality of the partners involved in the twinning exercise.

What are the challenges of twinning?

Driven by the quest for excellence, research intensive institutions tend to collaborate increasingly in closed groups, producing a crowding-out effect for a large number of promising institutions. This is the challenge that a specific Twinning action will try to address.

What is the duration of a twinning project?

The respective option of Article 6.5.C of the Model Grant Agreement will be applied. The duration of a Twinning project can be up to 3 years. If the coordinating entity has already been funded (as a coordinator) under other Horizon 2020 Twinning calls, these projects need to be described in the proposal.

What lessons can we learn from Horizon 2020?

One of the lessons learned from previous calls and from the interim evaluation of Horizon 2020, is the lack of experience with regard to research management and administration in widening countries.