Horizon Europe remains the main European research and innovation framework to watch through 2027. The European Commission adopted its second strategic plan for 2025-2027 on 20 March 2024, and that plan still shapes the logic of the programme's final years as of 18 April 2026.
The plan keeps three broad orientations in view: the green transition, the digital transition, and a more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe. The Commission also makes clear that open strategic autonomy and leadership in critical technologies cut across those orientations.
For Dutch-Turkish consortia, the practical takeaway is not to chase calls randomly. Proposals will usually be stronger when they can show which of these orientations they support, how they fit the expected impact language, and why the partnership adds value at European scale. That is an editorial inference from the plan, not a quoted eligibility rule.
The same strategy also signals a stronger biodiversity ambition, a 35% climate spending target across the programme lifetime, and a major digital allocation. Those signals help companies, universities and applied research teams decide whether their story belongs in deep tech, climate innovation, industrial transition or a cross-sector challenge before they start consortium building.