Australia signs agreement to join Horizon Europe, so its researchers can lead EU-funded projects

Australia has signed an agreement to take part in Horizon Europe, the European Union's research and innovation program, as an associated country, opening a route for its universities, research bodies and companies to lead EU-funded research consortia. Ekaterina Zaharieva, the European commissioner for startups, research and innovation, and Tim Ayres, Australia's minister for industry and innovation and minister for science, signed it in Brussels on November 12, the European Commission said.

The association covers Pillar II, which the Commission values at €52.4 billion. It is the program's largest part and pays for collaborative, multinational projects in areas the Commission lists as including health, climate, energy and digital technologies.

What changes for Australian researchers

The Commission says the agreement will let Australian researchers and organizations join and lead international consortia and access funding “on similar terms to their EU counterparts.” That is a change from the position described on the Commission's own page on research cooperation with Australia, which says that “in principle” the EU does not fund Australian research entities in collaborative projects. The page points instead to the National Health and Medical Research Council–European Union Collaborative Research Grant Scheme, which supports Australian participants, and says that in exceptional cases an entity's participation may be judged essential; Australian researchers can also take part with other funding, it says.

Some doors were already open. Australian researchers have been eligible for European Research Council grants and Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships, according to the same page, and the Commission says they will keep access to the parts of the Excellent Science and Innovative Europe pillars that are open to non-EU countries, subject to each call's conditions.

The timing is staggered. From January 2027, transitional arrangements will let Australian entities apply to Pillar II calls and be evaluated as prospective beneficiaries. The Commission expects the association process to be formally completed by mid-2027, after parliamentary scrutiny in Australia. Horizon Europe itself runs from 2021 to 2027, so by our reading Australia's association begins in the program's final year; the Commission's announcement does not address what follows the program. The November 12 release puts the program's budget at €93.5 billion, while the Commission's Australia page says more than €95.5 billion.

We may be half a world apart, but we share a belief in science and in what people can achieve when they work together.

A long research relationship, and a growing list of associates

The agreement builds on three decades of formal cooperation. The Agreement on Science and Technology Cooperation that Australia and the EU signed in 1994 was the first treaty-level science and technology agreement the EU signed with an industrialized country, the Commission says. Negotiations on Pillar II association concluded in June 2026.

With the signature, the Commission counts Australia as the 24th country associated with Horizon Europe. The other 23, it says, are Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Egypt, the Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, Türkiye, Tunisia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

India may follow. On November 6, the Commission said it had concluded negotiations on India's association, which would also give Indian researchers direct Horizon Europe funding and let them lead Pillar II projects once an agreement is signed and procedures are completed. It said association is “envisaged for January 2027.” Associated countries contribute financially to the program in return for taking part on equal terms in the parts their agreements cover, according to the Commission.