The Horizon Papers

22 Jul 2025 |

Science|Business is publishing the Commission’s sector-by-sector plans for its Horizon Europe programme

Papers

On this page, you can find the draft Horizon Europe work programmes 2026-27, and the drafting history for the work programmes for 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. These are the documents that spell out the research topics, timing and budgets the European Commission plans.

For a long time, the Commission kept the work programme drafting process behind closed doors. But the drafts would leak from the Commission to research offices around Europe, most often into the hands of those closest to the policymaking process, giving them an unfair advantage in the preparation for funding calls.

In 2021, Science|Business started publishing leaked drafts, sent to us confidentially by our readers, on this page. We did this, because we believed the Commission should be transparent about the drafting process and publish the draft documents for all to access.

In 2025, the Commission finally took the decision to publicly release the latest drafts as they become available, in a win for transparency.

But Science|Business has not abandoned its mission to bring all draft Horizon work programmes – and their drafting history – together in a single access point, here on our Horizon papers page. 

We also continue to analyse the novelties, quirks and particularities of these work programmes. Here are our latest articles: 

 

The Work Programmes

 

2026-27 Work Programmes

2025 Work Programmes

2023-24 Work Programmes

2021-22 Work Programmes

Other documents

You can download our analysis and explanation of the research programme in our own: “Horizon Europe: The Essential Guide [NEW EDITION].”

* documents linking to the European Commission’s website 

Editor’s note: This page was last updated 3 June 2025 to add a draft work programme for 2026-27.

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