As Horizon Europe expands their funding opportunities, tools such as EURAXESS North America will make communication easier.
Canada is now associated with Pillar II of Horizon Europe, which opens Canadian researchers to funding opportunities and facilitates closer collaboration with European researchers.
EURAXESS was launched to facilitate communication between Horizon and associated countries. The Innovation Platform sat down with Jackson Howard, the Regional Representative for EURAXESS North America, to learn more about this co-operation and EURAXESS’s work.
What are the goals of EURAXESS North America, and how do you support researchers?
EURAXESS is a European Union project that promotes researcher mobility and co-operation. It was first created in 2003 to promote the mobility of researchers within Europe, and its success led to the establishment of EURAXESS Worldwide, with the same aim but physically based outside of Europe and with the understanding that the EURAXESS Worldwide hubs may be the first and primary point of contact that people have with European research and innovation. Same as the whole initiative, EURAXESS is for researchers of all nationalities, all disciplines, and at all career stages.
At the North American hub, we cover Canada and the US and promote researcher mobility in both directions. In addition to highlighting the free EURAXESS services for researchers’ career development and finding job opportunities inside and outside of academia on our portal, we promote Horizon Europe, which is the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation.
These programmes operate on a seven-year basis, and we are currently approaching the middle of the 2021-2027 period during which Horizon Europe runs. This is an exciting time because many calls for 2024 are open, and we have plenty of years’ worth of resources informing on Horizon Europe already,meaning those learning about it for the first time can jump right in and check out our past events and info sessions to get familiar.
Why is participation in major research programmes like Horizon Europe so important for Canadian researchers?
I frequently think of the factoid from studies that demonstrate that research with international collaboration tends to have more citations – no matter where you are based, collaboration supports excellent research. In the case of Canada, Prime Minister Trudeau himself recently underscored that his country and Europe share many challenges. The purpose of the top-down open calls in Horizon Europe is to tackle societal challenges, meaning that as like-minded countries, we are in this together and will benefit from combining expertise and enjoying the results of these collaborations.
Canada already has a strong tradition of research collaboration, so participating in Horizon Europe serves as an important outlet for maintaining these partnerships.
The European Union recently announced Canada’s association with Pillar II of Horizon Europe. What opportunities does Pillar II offer compared to previous involvement in the programme?
The news that Canada will associate with Pillar II of Horizon Europe is huge and cannot be understated. Canada has always been a large participant in EU research and innovation framework programmes, but what that meant in the past is that Canada-based principal investigators had to bring their own funding. The Tri-Council, or the three funding agencies in the country, consisting of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), had previously set up the New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF), which allowed researchers to join EU consortia without funding and then apply to that fund to get it from the Canadian side, but this involved extra steps and uncertainty, e.g. what if you were accepted by one side, but not the other?
It was a great mechanism given the circumstances, but the idea of going ‘all in’ and associating means that, in simple terms, Canada-based PIs join consortia and are eligible for funding on the same basis as their colleagues in the EU. In fact, this is why nearly all countries in Europe and the wider neighbourhood have associated with Horizon Europe—you have the 27 EU member states, plus 18 countries, from Norway
to North Macedonia to Tunisia, that are in the neighbourhood and see the value of buying into the programme.
Under Horizon Europe, the condition of being geographically near Europe was removed, and New Zealand joined (for Pillar II only) last summer. The success of their example makes me confident that when the ink dries from Canada and the EU signing later this year, both sides will benefit immensely from the streamlined process and additional benefits.
How can Canada’s involvement in Horizon Europe strengthen its position as a global leader in innovation?
As an associated country, Canada can give policy input and, therefore, be involved in the strategic programming of Horizon Europe. Naturally, there is the networking and development of additional partnerships that come with joining. And because Canada has now established National Contact Points, or NCPs, to provide expertise on the thematic areas within Pillar II of Horizon Europe, researchers and institutions can feel more connected and get answers to their questions more easily. And, of course, we at EURAXESS North America are thrilled to be part of the conversation and assist with any questions as well.
Ultimately, I think researchers in Canada and Europe will be more likely to explore partnerships together knowing that they can both apply to Pillar II calls and, if successful, receive funding without the previous dynamic of the uncertainty of Canadian funding or the additional administrative burden. In addition to the more formal aspects I mentioned, I believe existing partnerships will deepen, and new ones will form organically, thanks to the momentum from the association with Horizon Europe.
How important is international collaboration in solving some of the planet’s most important issues?
Just look at the names of the clusters within Pillar II (see page one here) – these are problems that confront the world as a whole, and precisely the reason why countries like Canada and New Zealand are making what was previously a more European programme even more global. It is how global solutions arose to significant challenges like the pandemic, and it is clear that this collaboration is necessary for the benefit of the planet and society.
How important is mobility between Canada and Europe in helping researchers further their careers?
Mobility is hugely important, and on this metric, Canada ranks very high in both sending researchers to Europe and hosting European researchers. I should mention that as Canada associates with Horizon Europe, it will be to Pillar II only, which are the top-down open calls for collaborative international consortia; the topics are predetermined, and PIs remain at their existing institutions.
Pillar I is all about mobility, and the main schemes are Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and the European Research Council grants. The MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships allow for researchers from Canada to go to Europe for one- to two-year postdocs and for Europeans to go to Canada (or any country they choose) for postdocs for the same period with an additional one-year mandatory return phase to Europe.
ERC grants allow researchers of any nationality to go to Europe with generous funding to set up labs for high-risk, high-reward research. Because Canada is associating with Pillar II only, nothing changes with the dynamic above, and as you can see, it’s already extremely open. So, as more and more institutions become aware of Canadian association with Horizon Europe’s Pillar II, I should urge them to take full advantage of the already robust mobility taking place under Pillar I – universities and other research institutions in Canada should post to the EURAXESS Hosting portal so that researchers in Europe can apply to an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship with that institution as their host. They should promote opportunities for their researchers to go to Europe on both MSCA fellowships and ERC grants; with the latter, team members outside Europe can be hired, and Synergy Grants allow for one PI to be based outside of Europe.
What advice would you give to Canadian researchers and institutions looking to engage more deeply with the programme?
You have a big toolkit of resources at your disposal. We at EURAXESS North America are tasked with providing info sessions and answering your questions, as are the Canadian NCPs for Pillar II of Horizon Europe. You also have NCPs based in Europe who will answer your queries, including for Pillar I, where we don’t have such NCPs in North America.
It’s commonly expressed that institutions deepen their connections to EU R&I programmes when they first begin hosting MSCA fellows as they get familiar with Horizon Europe (or its predecessors) that way. There is a great Marie-Curie Alumni Association, with its local North America Chapter (MCAA-NA) and board members and co-ordinators throughout Canada, who assist current fellows, alumni, and prospective applicants alike.
The EU Delegation to Canada regularly informs Canadian universities about opportunities under Horizon Europe. Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service representation in Brussels does excellent work with EU counterparts and on informing Canadians about these opportunities. The European-Canadian Centre for Innovation and Research (ECCIR) and the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) Canada are excellent resources as well.
While an obvious self-promotion, I would encourage anyone with an interest in Europe to subscribe to our flashnote emails, where we post information on webinars and in-person events, research-related news, and specific funding and job opportunities. Whether you are a researcher yourself or staff supporting researchers, whether you want to move to a new country or stay where you are but develop connections, we have something for you. As an EU project promoting European – North American research connections, our work is free. Don’t hesitate to contact us to share your questions or thoughts so we can connect further!
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Find out more about the MSCA postdoctoral fellowships in our 04 June webinar!
Find out more about the European Research Council grants in our 10 June webinar!
Please note, this article will also appear in the 18th edition of our quarterly publication.
