On 1 July, the European Commission published two calls for evidence to prepare the final evaluation of Horizon 2020 and the interim evaluation of Horizon Europe, respectively.

These calls are the first step of the evaluation process, aiming to support the implementation of current EU research and innovation measures and to inform the design of future ones, as well as to fulfil the Commission’s obligation to report on its spending of public funds.

The evaluations will address the relevance, coherence, EU added value, the efficiency and the effectiveness of the two Framework Programmes. They will cover every component of the programmes including partnerships, missions, the European Institute of Technology and direct research actions by the Joint Research Centre. They will look into the rationale for the programmes, their implementation and achievements, as well as their longer-term impact and sustainability. Both calls for evidence will remain open until 29 July 2022 (midnight Brussels time).

As a second step, the Commission is expected to launch public consultations for both programmes by the end of this year, aiming to issue the results of the final evaluation for Horizon 2020 by the fourth quarter of 2023 and of the interim evaluation for Horizon Europe by the third quarter of 2024.

The evaluation of the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation is an important milestone in the design of more effective and efficient EU support measures. It is in the interest of the higher education community to provide evidence on various cross-cutting issues, particularly the implementation of synergies between research and higher education through the Framework Programmes. Such evidence is important for the continuation and expansion of the related support measures, including the R&I dimension of the European Universities Initiative and Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, to name a few.