Association to Horizon Europe is the closest form of international cooperation in Horizon Europe. Entities of Associated Countries can participate in the Horizon Europe calls under the same conditions as entities from the EU Member States and are therefore eligible for funding, unless specific limitations or conditions are laid down in the work programme and/or call topic text.
Not only EU neighbouring countries can apply for association, any country in the world with a strong research and innovation capacity that share common values with Europe can apply for association to Horizon Europe.
There are 4 categories of countries eligible for association with Horizon Europe:
Close to the start of the Association, transitional measures can be set in place, through which entities of these countries can already be included as beneficiaries in call topics. Details are mentioned in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
All details regarding country eligibility is compiled in the infosheet “International cooperation".
Autoship is, as the name suggests, an acronym for autonomous ship. Just like with self-driving cars, the possibilities of an unmanned boat seem endless. It can create more efficient freight transport, around the clock deliveries and these are just a few of the examples. The project has two societal challenges.
At first, De Vlaamse Waterweg was a bit hesitant as their experience with FP7 or Horizon 2020 projects was limited and they had not been very successful up until then. The fact that they were already doing basic research on the topic of autonomous boats, and the administrative help of NCP FLanders helped De Vlaamse waterweg to cross the line and get involved.