Open strategic autonomy, economic and research security in EU foreign policy
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HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-DEMOCRACY-04 – Funding Overview
Quick facts
Type of Action: Research and Innovation Action (RIA) – Lump-Sum Grant
Total EU budget for the topic (indicative): €26 million
Expected EU contribution per project: €3 – 4 million (larger or smaller possible if duly justified)
Project duration (typical): 36 – 48 months
Proposal page limit (Part B): 50 pages (+ mandatory lump-sum budget table)
Opening / Deadline: 15 May 2025 / 16 September 2025, 17:00 Brussels time (single stage)
What will be funded?
The call finances collaborative, interdisciplinary research that:
- Provides conceptual, historical and empirical evidence on open strategic autonomy (OSA), economic security and research security in EU foreign policy.
- Maps actors, drivers, risks and inter-dependencies across sectors (research, innovation, production, trade, development, human rights, etc.).
- Assesses costs/benefits and unintended consequences of OSA policies inside and outside the EU, with special focus on developing countries, gender and minority rights.
- Develops policy options, toolkits and foresight scenarios enabling EU and national authorities to balance "as open as possible / as closed as necessary".
- Engages a wide range of stakeholders through participatory and experimental methods and delivers FAIR data outputs.
All direct research, networking, dissemination, management, open-science, communication and exploitation activities that are necessary to achieve the above objectives are eligible and covered by the lump sum.
Who is eligible?
- Minimum consortium: 3 independent legal entities from 3 different EU Member States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries (MS/AC).
- Additional partners worldwide may participate; automatic EU funding is limited to MS/AC. Third-country entities may receive funding only if their country provides a co-funding mechanism or if their participation is deemed essential.
- All beneficiaries must have a validated Participant Identification Code (PIC) and (for public bodies, research organisations & HEIs) a Gender Equality Plan in place.
Lump-sum specifics
- The proposal must contain a detailed cost breakdown; the lump-sum amount is fixed in the Grant Agreement.
- Payments are performance-based: after each reporting period the lump-sum share is released if the corresponding work packages are accepted.
- No actual cost reporting is required, but beneficiaries must keep records to demonstrate that the action was implemented as described.
Other key requirements & opportunities
- Obligation to comply with Horizon Europe open-science practices (open access, DMP, EOSC, FAIR data).
- Synergies with earlier Horizon 2020 projects and with EU programmes such as DIGITAL, CERV, Erasmus+, Global Europe are expected.
- Clustering activities with other projects under the destination “Innovative Research on Democracy and Governance (2025)” must be budgeted.
- Ethics, security (export-control) and “do-no-significant-harm” considerations must be addressed from proposal stage onward.
📊 At a Glance
🇪🇺 Strategic Advantages
EU-Wide Advantages & Opportunities for the Call “Open strategic autonomy, economic and research security in EU foreign policy” (HORIZON-CL2-2025-01-DEMOCRACY-04)
1. Single Market Access: 450 + million People, 27 Legal Orders, One Playground
• Demonstrate how policy recommendations, foresight tools or risk-assessment dashboards developed by the project can be mainstreamed across all Member States under a single legal framework (Treaties, Art. 173 & 179 TFEU).
• Easier commercial uptake of resulting governance/monitoring solutions (e.g., compliance software for research security) due to harmonised GDPR, Digital Services Act, Foreign Subsidy Regulation, etc.
• Immediate customer base: EU institutions, 27 ministries of foreign affairs, security & science agencies, plus Association & Neighbourhood countries that mirror EU acquis.
2. Cross-Border Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange
• Grants demand consortia from ≥3 countries; opens doors to form a pan-European observatory on strategic autonomy bringing together political science, economics, law, data science and security studies.
• Access to trans-European networks such as ERA-NETs, COST Actions, Diplomacy Labs, EEAS Science Diplomacy Network – multiplying reach and expertise.
• Ability to test policy prototypes in diverse geopolitical contexts (Nordic liberal, Central–Eastern security-focused, Southern neighbourhood-oriented) and create evidence that no national project could generate alone.
3. Alignment with Key EU Agendas
• European Economic Security Strategy (2023), Council Recommendation on Research Security (2024), the Twin Transitions agenda (Green Deal + Digital Decade), Global Gateway, Strategic Foresight cycle – the topic explicitly requests integration with these.
• A strongly aligned proposal scores higher on “Excellence” & “Impact” criteria and positions the consortium as a long-term adviser for forthcoming EU legislation (e.g. Critical Technology Lists, Foreign Investment Screening 2.0).
4. Regulatory Harmonisation as a Living Lab
• Horizon Europe projects often feed directly into soft-law guidance, delegated acts and recommendations; working at EU scale allows piloting harmonised definitions of “research security” or “trusted research” which Member States are currently developing piecemeal.
• Opportunity to propose an EU-wide risk-taxonomy and self-assessment toolkit that can later become part of CEN/CENELEC standards.
5. World-Class Innovation Ecosystem & Research Infrastructures
• Full access to European Research Infrastructures in SSH (CESSDA, ESS, SHARE, EHRI) and EOSC services ensures FAIR data, enhancing scientific credibility.
• Synergies with IPCEIs on Micro-electronics, Cloud-Edge, or Hydrogen when analysing technological sovereignty case-studies.
• Possibility to embed industry federations, NGOs, media houses from multiple Member States, creating a multi-stakeholder sandbox for evidence-based policy.
6. Funding Synergies & Leverage
• Combine Horizon lump-sum budget with:
• DIGITAL Europe (for cybersecurity/testing facilities)
• CERV & Erasmus+ (for civic engagement pilots)
• NDICI-Global Europe (to test external dimension of autonomy in partner countries)
• Technical Support Instrument (TSI) to help national ministries transpose findings into reforms.
• Leverage Seal of Excellence for proposals or tasks that may be spun off under Interreg, ESF+, or national recovery funds.
7. Scale, Visibility & Impact Multipliers
• EU-level studies become baseline references for subsequent Impact Assessments and Staff Working Documents; citation and uptake probability far exceed national studies.
• Project results can feed into EU Presidencies’ agendas, Strategic Compass reviews, and European Parliament reports—maximising policy influence.
• Multilingual dissemination via Commission Representations and Euractiv‐style platforms ensures outreach to all EU citizens and media markets.
8. Strategic Value of Operating at EU Scale
1. Risk Diversification: Data from 27 jurisdictions produces statistically robust insights into dependencies & vulnerabilities.
2. Collective Bargaining Power: Evidence-based recommendations strengthen the EU’s hand in WTO, OECD, G7, UN and bilateral negotiations on supply-chain security or science diplomacy.
3. Global Standard-Setter: A pan-European framework on open strategic autonomy can become a de-facto international norm, pre-empting protectionist spill-overs.
4. Cohesion & Solidarity: Tackles fragmentation risk by offering practical tools to manage divergent national policies – something no single Member State can solve.
9. Actionable Tips for Applicants
• Map Previous EU Projects (e.g., H2020’s RESIST, RECONNECT, OPENEUSTRAT, TechTide) and clearly state how their datasets/methodologies will be re-used or scaled.
• Integrate Participatory Approaches: Living Labs in at least 6 countries; gender-responsive & inclusion lens responds to call’s emphasis.
• Plan a Regulatory & Standards Task Force liaising with DG R&I, DG TRADE, DG DEFIS and CEN/CENELEC from month 1.
• Design policy demonstrators (e.g., an evidence dashboard or sandbox) deployable across the Union by project month 24, supporting lump-sum interim milestones.
> Working within Horizon Europe does not merely provide funding; it embeds consortia in the Union’s law- and policy-making machinery, enabling solutions to scale from pilot to Union-wide adoption—and ultimately to the global stage.
🏷️ Keywords
Ready to Apply?
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