Horizon papers: €62 million cut to democracy and culture research

The latest draft 2025 work programme for culture, creativity and inclusive society research in Horizon Europe shows €62 million in cuts compared to a version we leaked in October.

Five democracy and culture research topics have disappeared from the most recent draft, while other calls see their budgets slashed. The total budget for calls for proposals in 2025 is now down from €416 million to €354 million. 

Science|Business has been sharing leaked Horizon Europe 2025 work programmes over the past few months. These draft documents outline research the EU will fund in the coming months. While the draft versions are usually available to those closest to the European Commission, most researchers do not get access to them until the Commission chooses to publicly release them. 

We think that’s unfair. That’s why you can find any leaks we come across on our Horizon Papers page.

Here is a breakdown of what has changed in the January draft of the Cluster 2 work programme for culture, creativity and inclusive society research.

Under Innovative Research on Democracy and Governance, the Commission has cut the following topics:

• Understanding the forms of local democracy in low-income and low-middle income countries: €10.5 million
• Understanding and addressing gender-based violence against politically active women and LGBTIQ people: €7 million
• Government in transition: how governments change the way they work and prepare the civil service for the future: €7 million

Under Innovative Research on European Cultural Heritage and Cultural and Creative Industries, the following calls have been cut: 

• Cultural tourism for sustainable growth, wellbeing and job creation: €4 million
• Innovative technologies and methods to counteract illicit trafficking of cultural goods: €15 million

Another call focused on innovative approaches to intangible cultural heritage for societal resilience has been turned into a two-stage call with a budget of €10.2 million, down from €12 million.

There is also a new €2 million call under this heading focused on the impacts of culture and the arts on health and wellbeing, which has moved from another part of the programme.

Under Innovative Research on Social and Economic Transformations, no topics have been cut, but a few millions have been shaved off research into intergenerational fairness in the context of demographic change in the EU, as well as migration and climate change.

One call, on gender differences in career trajectories of parents and their implications for gender equality and family wellbeing, worth €10.2 million, will now have a two-stage application process rather than one. 

Finally, the budget for the co-funded European partnership for Resilient Cultural Heritage has been lowered from €75 million to €60 million.

This draft is probably not the final version of the work programme, and is likely to change before the official release of all Horizon Europe plans for 2025 this spring.