Horizon Europe Programme

Horizon Europe is the EU’s multiannual funding programme for research and innovation between 2021-2027. Three strategic documents outlining the implementation of the programme in its first years reveal the link made between culture and health so far:
1) The Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024 defines the key strategic orientations for the first four years of programme. The document aims to ensure an effective interface between EU policy priorities, and programme activities and ultimately, the research and innovation projects funded by Horizon Europe. Pillar II of the Programme, Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness has 6 clusters, including one for Health (cluster 1) and one for Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society (cluster 2). The promotion of social cohesion and inclusiveness and the health and well-being of its people are central aims of the European Union’s policies and programmes. The Strategic Plan acknowledges cross-cluster complementarities between the Health cluster and the Culture cluster.
2) Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022. Health cluster is the action plan for the implementation of the first two years of cluster 1 Health. It contributes to six expected impacts set out by the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2021-2024: 1 - Staying healthy in a rapidly changing society; 2 - Living and working in a health-promoting environment; 3 - Tackling diseases and reducing disease burden; 4 - Ensuring access to innovative, sustainable and high-quality health care; 5 - Unlocking the full potential of new tools, technologies and digital solutions for a healthy society; 6 - Maintaining an innovative, sustainable and globally competitive health related industry. The document also stresses that importance of cross-fertilisation and other synergies between EU-funded projects under the different pillars and clusters of Horizon Europe. For instance, it mentions the welcome intersections with cluster 2 Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society, such as on health inequalities, on other inequalities affecting health, or on citizens’ behaviour and engagement, but also on health economics and economic models, on cost-effectiveness, fiscal sustainability and accessibility of health care, or on adaptation of public health systems to societal challenges (climate change, environmental degradation, migration, emerging epidemics, etc.).
3) Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022. Culture, creativity and inclusive society is the action plan for the implementation of the first two years of Culture cluster. It includes several calls for proposals that are relevant for the link between culture and health. One example is the call - New ways of participatory management and sustainable financing of museums and other cultural institutions, which also aims to promote the role of museums and other cultural institutions in well-being, health, resilience, social inclusion and society’s dealing with trauma and post-crisis recovery.