CENTREPEACE RMA Breakfast: Navigating Horizon Europe

On September 30, 2025, CENTREPEACE organised another RMA Breakfast, a series of meetings connecting researchers and research support professionals to share experience and practical knowledge. This session focused on European research grants, particularly the Horizon Europe programme.

The guest speaker, Ladislav Čoček from the Grants Office at Masaryk University, provided a comprehensive overview of the structure, funding, and policy logic behind Horizon Europe — the European Union’s flagship research and innovation programme.

In the first part of his presentation, he explained the multiannual financial framework, including how funds are distributed and what share is dedicated to research. He then introduced the three pillars of Horizon Europe — Excellent Science, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, and Innovative Europe — and demonstrated how EU policy priorities are interconnected with research priorities.

The presentation also covered missions, widening participation, and partnership schemes, explaining their purpose and the opportunities they create for researchers.

In the next section, Mr. Čoček outlined how work programmes and calls for proposals are developed — a complex process that involves policy-makers, civil servants, researchers, and lobbyists, resulting in the final formulation of research topics. He then demonstrated how to interpret a research call, breaking down its key sections and terminology.

The session concluded with a discussion on the future of European research funding, including a look ahead to the next framework programme (2028–2034) and expected changes compared to the current Horizon Europe structure.

Participants agreed that to succeed in international research at the European level, it is crucial to understand how the system functions — not only technically, but also in its political and strategic context, which helps researchers write stronger and more relevant project proposals.