HE Work Programme 2026-2027 WIDERA ERA part update: Overview of main changes

The updated Horizon Europe Work Programme (HE WP) 2026-2027 Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area (WIDERA) was published on 29 September 2026 (available here). An overview of the changes compared to the previous version (1.0 with publication date 11 December 2025, available here) in the Strengthening the European Research Area (ERA) by reforming and enhancing the European research and innovation system part is described in this article.

Changes to call topic HORIZON-WIDERA-2027-05-ERA-02

Under Destination: Reforming and enhancing the European research and innovation system the call topic HORIZON-WIDERA-2027-05-ERA-02 Pillar II: Talent ecosystems for attractive early research careers has undergone a number of changes.

• The expected EU contribution per project has been changed from €2 to €4 million to around 2 million.
• The indicative number of projects expected to be funded has increased from 12 to 15. 
• In the expected outcome of the call topic, an example of a talent ecosystem has been added: it for instance could consist of a long-lasting cooperation between a cluster of companies in a certain sector and one or more academic institutions, enabling specific skills training of early-career researchers in cooperation with the companies, and facilitating talent circulation.
• In the scope, the main changes are the request that applicants should identify the thematic area they plan to address. Five thematic areas have been indicated: 1) Clean Transition: Energy and transport; 2) Health; 3) Biotech, agriculture and bioeconomy; 4) Digital and AI technologies; 5) Space. Another addition to the scope to ensure that activities reinforce rather than duplicate existing European-level support is that activities should demonstrate how actions will build on, connect to, make use of, promote and, where appropriate, help improve relevant ERA Talent Platform initiatives, including, EURAXESS, RESAVER, ReICO, ResearchComp and RM Comp. Furthermore, this entails structured cooperation with the already existing pilot projects funded under HORIZON-WIDERA-2024-ERA-02-03 (link to CORDIS) and the projects that are expected to be funded under this call.
• The evaluation procedure as described in General Annex F will be followed with the following added exceptions: To ensure a balanced portfolio covering different thematic areas, as outlined in the scope, grants are expected to be awarded to proposals not only in order of ranking, but at least also to proposals that are the highest ranked within each thematic area, provided that proposals pass all thresholds.

Gender Equality Competence Facility

Another change concerns bringing the Framework Contract period forward by a year for the Gender Equality Competence Facility, from 2028–2031 to 2027–2030. The indicative timetable was brought forward from Q3 to Q2.