What is Horizon Europe Pillar II?
Horizon Europe Pillar II – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness is the largest component of the European Union’s research and innovation programme. It supports collaborative projects that address major societal challenges while strengthening Europe’s scientific excellence, industrial leadership, technological sovereignty, and long-term competitiveness.
Through international cooperation between universities, research organisations, industry, SMEs, public authorities, and civil society organisations, Pillar II funds innovative solutions to challenges in areas such as health, climate change, digital transformation, energy, mobility, security, agriculture, and sustainability. Projects are expected to generate measurable scientific, societal, economic, and policy impacts while contributing to European strategic priorities.
Unlike many individual funding schemes, Pillar II focuses on collaborative, multidisciplinary, and impact-driven research and innovation. Successful projects combine scientific excellence with strong stakeholder engagement, effective exploitation strategies, and clear pathways towards real-world implementation and societal benefit.
Types of Horizon Europe Actions
Research and Innovation Actions (RIA): Creating new knowledge and developing innovative technologies: Research, development, validation, and collaborative innovation activities addressing scientific and technological challenges.
Innovation Actions (IA): Bringing innovations closer to deployment: Demonstration, piloting, testing, validation, and market-oriented activitieswith strong impact potential.
Coordination and Support Actions (CSA): Building communities, policies, and innovation ecosystems: Networking, stakeholder engagement, policy support, dissemination, standardisation, and capacity-building activities.
The Six Clusters
Cluster 1 – Health
Cluster 2 – Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society
Cluster 3 – Civil Security for Society
Cluster 4 – Digital, Industry and Space
Cluster 5 – Climate, Energy and Mobility
Cluster 6 – Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
What Makes Horizon Europe Pillar II Proposals Successful?
Success in Horizon Europe Pillar II requires far more than scientific excellence alone. Evaluators look for projects that combine innovation, impact, implementation capacity, and strong European added value. The most competitive proposals demonstrate not only what will be achieved, but also why it matters, who will benefit, and how the results will be translated into real-world impact.
Strategic Alignment with EU Priorities: Projects must clearly address the objectives, expected outcomes, and impacts defined in the work programme while contributing to broader European policy priorities.
A Strong and Balanced Consortium: Successful consortia bring together complementary expertise from academia, industry, SMEs, publicauthorities, and end-users, ensuring the capacity to deliver ambitious objectives and maximise impact.
A Credible Impact Pathway: Impact is often the key differentiator between good and excellent proposals. Applicants must demonstrate how project results will contribute to scientific, societal, economic, and policy objectives beyond the project duration.
Excellence in Research and Innovation: Projects should present innovative and ambitious concepts supported by a robust methodology, clearobjectives, and a credible approach to achieving meaningful results.
Effective Implementation and Project Management: A well-structured work plan, realistic resource allocation, strong governance, risk management, and clear responsibilities are essential for successful project delivery.
Stakeholder and End-User Engagement: The strongest proposals actively involve relevant stakeholders and end-users throughout the projectlifecycle, ensuring relevance, adoption, and long-term sustainability of the results.
How Can We Support?
At EFMC, we help applicants strengthen all three evaluation criteria—Excellence, Impact, and Implementation—ensuring that proposals are strategically positioned, fully aligned with call expectations, and designed to maximise their chances of success.
EFMC provides expert support throughout the entire proposal development process, helping applicants transform innovative project ideas intocompetitive Horizon Europe proposals. Our services are tailored to the specific requirements of each call, consortium, and action type, ensuring full alignment with Horizon Europe evaluation criteria and European policy priorities.