Canada joins Horizon Europe
Canada joins Horizon Europe, the European Union’s main funding program for research and innovation. LAND Canada’s General Manager, Valeria Pagliaro, welcomes the recent agreement bringing Canada closer to Europe in the field of research.
On July 3, 2024, a historic moment was marked as the Government of Canada and the European Commission signed an agreement, a significant step that allows Canada’s enhanced participation in Horizon Europe under Pillar 2 of the program, “Global challenges and European industrial competitiveness”.
Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of €93.5 billion for 2021-27. It tackles climate change, helps to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boosts the EU’s competitiveness and growth.
Canadian entities can now join and lead research consortia with some of the world’s best research organizations to tackle global challenges together, and they will be funded directly from the programme. This is very important to foster the collaboration between Europe and Canada, as Valeria Pagliaro remarks: “This funding line for innovation is a powerful tool to boost the green transition, combining environmental and social demands to achieve climate and social resilience. Such joint commitment to enhanced collaboration will spark breakthrough innovations between the public and private sectors across the Atlantic, helping us face ecological and social crises organically.
I look forward to exploring the multi-faceted structure of the agreement, which spans a wide range of domains. Our mission to improve sustainability, inclusivity and people’s wellbeing will be further strengthened thanks to the cooperation between our research communities. It is a pivotal milestone for our LAND Research Lab, which is already contributing to international projects funded by Horizon Europe to enhance livability and biodiversity in our cities and territories.”
