Horizon Europe – Widening: understanding Europe’s research disparities and the European Commission’s response

The European Research Area[1], launched by the European Commission in 2000 to create a more integrated and effective European research system, is built on cooperation and excellence. Yet participation in European R&I programmes remains uneven across countries and territories. Some countries benefit from mature research ecosystems, established support structures, and strong international networks, while others remain less connected to these dynamics and less visible in competitive EU programmes. These differences are not only scientific; they also reflect broader structural conditions, including research management capacity, institutional strategy, access to partnerships, and the ability to translate scientific potential into sustained European positioning. It is against this backdrop that the European Commission progressively developed dedicated “Widening” measures, structured as a distinct programme strand under Horizon 2020 and are now continued under Horizon Europe’s WIDERA pillar[2][3], in line with the EU’s long-standing cohesion policy aim to reduce structural imbalances and foster convergence across research and innovation ecosystems[4].

What are Widening countries and territories?

Under Horizon Europe, Widening countries and territories are those specifically targeted by measures designed to strengthen participation and spread excellence across Europe. All eligible organisations may take part in Widening actions, but only organisations established in Widening countries/territories may coordinate them.[5]

Data on participation in EU research programmes shows that Widening countries generally account for a smaller share of total participations than non-Widening countries. The map below illustrates this pattern using Horizon 2020 participation data by country.

Reading note: the number shown for each country indicates the percentage of all Horizon 2020 participations linked to organisations based in that country. For example, France (9.63) means that organisations based in France account for 9.63% of all Horizon 2020 participations, while Romania (0.91) accounts for 0.91%

Source: European Union, Horizon 2020 country profiles[6]

When we compare GDP per capita with Horizon 2020 funding per capita (in the chart below), a clear overall pattern emerges: many Widening countries are positioned in the lower part of the graph on both indicators, while several non-Widening countries combine higher levels of wealth with higher levels of EU funding per capita. This suggests that differences in participation in European programmes are not only linked to scientific strength, but also to broader factors such as institutional capacity, access to networks, and the ability to compete successfully for European funding.

Sources: EIS interactive tool 2025 | Research and Innovation ; Horizon 2020 country profiles (2014-2020) – Research and innovation ; World Bank (GDP per capita, in current international dollars at purchasing power parity (PPP), to allow more robust cross-country comparisons).

It is important to note that the Widening category is not limited to the EU Member States shown in the charts above. It also includes a number of Associated Countries[7] with comparable research and innovation characteristics, as well as the EU’s outermost regions under Article 349 TFEU: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion, Saint-Martin, the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands[8].

A distinction should nevertheless be made with Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs): Unlike the EU’s outermost regions, OCTs, such as French Polynesia and New Caledonia, are not covered by this Article 349 TFEU framework; and while they may in principle be eligible to Horizon Europe, their different status result, in practice, in more limited access or weaker integration across certain EU funding schemes, including for universities located in these territories.

The EU’s Widening toolbox

To address these structural imbalances, the European Commission has developed a set of dedicated measures aimed at strengthening research and innovation capacity across Widening countries and territories. These measures are designed not only to increase participation in European programmes, but also to reinforce the conditions that sustain such participation over time.

The broader Widening toolbox includes several instruments developed under Horizon Europe, including Teaming, Twinning, Hop-on Facility, ERA Chairs, ERA Fellowships, and Excellence Hubs. Each of these instruments addresses a different dimension of capacity-building, from institutional development and talent circulation to ecosystem structuring and collaborative integration into European research and networks.

In that landscape, Twinning provides a useful illustration of the Widening logic in practice. By fostering structured collaboration between institutions with different levels of research connectivity and experience, it supports scientific cooperation, knowledge transfer, and the strengthening of institutional capacity over time. Our teams were recently involved in preparing a proposal coordinated by a Portuguese organisation, with partners from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Erdyn in France, under the latest Twinning call (HORIZON-WIDERA-2026-02-WIDENING-01).

Excellence Hubs, a forthcoming WIDERA funding opportunity

Among the upcoming WIDERA opportunities for organisations in Widening countries and territories is the next Excellence Hubs call (HORIZON-WIDERA-2027-04-WIDENING-01)[9], which is scheduled to open on 2 September 2026 and close on 4 March 2027. This call follows a more ecosystem-oriented logic, aiming to strengthen regional innovation excellence through closer links between research organisations, businesses, public authorities, and civil society. For organisations in Widening countries and territories, this can be especially relevant when the aim is not only to strengthen an institution itself, but also to better connect research with regional innovation ecosystems and European partnerships. In this sense, organisations intending to position themselves on this call can already begin by shaping the project rationale, identifying relevant partners, structuring the consortium, developing an initial budget framework etc.

Building a credible proposal for a Widening call

For eligible organisations, responding to a Widening call involves more than assembling a consortium and drafting a work plan. It requires a clear rationale: why these partners, why this positioning, and how the proposed activities are expected to strengthen capacities over time.

A strong proposal therefore depends on several factors: the relevance of the partner institutions, the organisation’s ability to absorb knowledge and practices mobilised through the project, the credibility of the proposed capacity-building pathway, and the contribution the project can make to long-term institutional development. More broadly, the proposal needs to show how the initiative can create lasting value beyond the funding period.

Our support for Widening organisations, from proposal design to implementation

Erdyn has developed direct experience working with organisations established in Widening countries and territories. Of the 193 organisations with which we have collaborated on European projects, 29 are based in Widening contexts[10]. This gives us a practical understanding of the issues that often shape these projects, from partnership-building and institutional positioning to capacity development, project structuring, and implementation support.

This experience also builds on long-standing work on research and innovation projects in French outermost territories, including La Réunion since 2015. It is further reflected in our support for projects under the French national PIOM call dedicated to overseas innovation hubs, where Erdyn supported two of the six selected projects including the two that received the highest levels of funding.

More broadly, our contribution spans both the design of competitive proposals and the implementation of funded projects, with the aim of helping organisations build credible, well-structured, and strategically aligned project frameworks.

During the proposal phase, this may involve identifying relevant partners, refining consortium positioning, contributing to the project’s strategic rationale, supporting the valorisation of research results, structuring work packages, drafting key sections of the application, supporting the administrative preparation of the proposal, defining relevant indicators, and ensuring consistency across expected impacts, intellectual property considerations, and the project’s overall budget. Drawing on our experience across a wide range of projects and organisations, we can also bring benchmarking elements and help enrich the project framework itself, whether by identifying relevant practices, suggesting additional tasks or work package content, or strengthening the overall structuring of the proposal.

During implementation, our contribution can take several complementary forms:

Supporting project steering and management, through the deployment of monitoring tools, follow-up mechanisms, reporting practices, and the use of project indicators to support delivery, visibility, and overall project oversight.
Contributing to capacity-building, by supporting teams, sharing methods and tools, and helping strengthen internal competencies over the course of the project.
Delivering selected project tasks, depending on the project’s needs, for example in communication and dissemination, market analysis in support of result valorisation, or other activities linked to exploitation and project delivery.

Our Strengths: