European Partnerships

European Partnerships

European Partnerships create a platform for strengthened and structured collaboration and knowledge exchange between various actors in the European R&I system and enhanced coordination of strategic research agendas and/or R&I funding programmes. They are based on agreed objectives and a long-term vision, underpinned by Strategic Research and Innovation Agendas (SRIAs) to which all partners in the partnership commit. This is a key feature that distinguishes European Partnerships from other collaborative research instruments. Partnerships also enhance cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration and integration of value chains and ecosystems, improving integration of sectoral R&I policies, notably through more systematic and extended reach and engagement of stakeholders such as end-users and public authorities.

In Horizon Europe, there are three different implementation modes for European Partnerships.

Co-funded

  • Co-funding of joint programmes of R&I activities between R&I funders. They are based on a Horizon Europe Grant Agreement signed by the Commission and a consortium of partners, generally composed of R&I funders and other public authorities. 

Institutionalised partnerships

  • Joint Undertakings (JUs): long-term collaborations with private (sometimes also public) partners requiring a high degree of integration. 
  • Article 185 initiatives: long-term collaborations with public partners requiring a high degree of integration. 
  • European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) – Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs): Europe-wide innovation ecosystems that integrate education, research and entrepreneurship. They are established in compliance with the EIT regulation and the EIT strategic Innovation Agenda.

Co-programmed

  • Joint programming of R&I activities and mobilisation of additional activities by partners in line with the objectives of the partnership. They are based on a Memorandum of Understanding, generally with industry associations. The EU contribution is implemented through the Horizon Europe mechanisms (work programmes and their calls for proposals), and matching partners’ contributions are implemented under their responsibility.

The main differences between these forms of European Partnership are in their preparation and how they function, as well as in the overall impact they can trigger. The Co-funded and Co-programmed Partnerships are linked to the strategic plan and the Horizon Europe work programmes. Article 185 and JU Institutionalised Partnerships require the adoption of separate legislation and are subject to an ex-ante impact assessment. 

European Partnerships are established only if there is evidence that they will support the achievement of EU policy objectives more effectively than other Horizon Europe actions.

The Horizon Europe strategic plan 2025-2027 includes a list of new candidate Co-Funded and Co-programmed European Partnerships to be launched during the second half of Horizon Europe.

 

Participation of Spain

Spain currently participates in all of the European Partnerships, demonstrating the country’s global interest and commitment in all thematic areas. Spain's participation is carried out through different national (AEI, CEDTI, ISCIII, etc.) and regional funding agencies (Innobasque, SPRI, etc.) depending on the thematic area.

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Source: European Commission

European Partnership's projects

COSMOS: Characterization Of Structure and Measures On Metric Spaces

Specific program: “Starting grants”

The call for projects “Europa Excelencia” aims to improve the success of Spanish participation in the calls for proposals of the European Research Council (ERC), in its “Starting Grants,” “Consolidator Grants,” and “Advanced Grants” categories, within Pillar 1 “Excellent Science” of the European Union's Horizon Europe Research Framework Program.

These are scientific and technical research projects related to the objectives of proposals that have been submitted and positively evaluated and considered eligible by the ERC, but which, for budgetary reasons, have not ultimately been funded by that body.

Grant EUR2025-165042 funded by MICIU/AEI /10.13039/501100011033

Code: EUR2025-165042

Project start date: 12/01/2025

Project end date: 11/30/2027

Brief description:

COSMOS is a 24-month research project led by Andrea Merlo at the University of the Basque Country. Its core ambition is to settle or greatly advance the WALA conjecture, a quantitative differentiability problem that links how Lipschitz functions behave at small scales with the large-scale geometry of rough sets and measures. Resolving WALA would provide a new bridge between classical Rademacher theory and modern notions such as uniform rectifiability and could unlock a path towards a complete resolution of the regularity problem for elliptic pdes.