Horizon Europe’s roll out of lump sum funding is gathering speed, with €1.3 billion awarded in the new, less reporting-heavy way by the end of 2023, according to the European Commission.
Lump sums were introduced to the Horizon Europe research programme after a relatively small trial in the previous programme Horizon 2020. Beneficiaries no longer have to account for every euro spent, instead getting funding as a lump sum.
The intention is to reduce bureaucratic overheads and cut high error rates in EU spending on research. However, the move hasn’t been particularly popular. Here’s a list of reasons why research managers are sceptical.
The scale up has been fast. In the end of 2022, only 2% of the programme, or €306 million, was distributed in this way. In 2023 this was ramped up and by the end of 2024, it’s expected that as many as 30% of grants in Horizon Europe will be distributed in lump sums.
Yet, money-wise, it’s still not a huge amount. Between 2021 and 2023, the Commission signed off a total of 10,564 Horizon Europe grants worth over €30 billion in EU funding. Of these 1,200 accounted for the lump sum funding of €1.3 billion.
It’s worth noting lump sums work best for smaller projects with fewer beneficiaries
Take a look at the numbers in the graph below. Note the numbers exclude European Research Council grants.
One of the fears about lump sums was that they may deter some, especially newcomers, from applying. Not everyone subscribes to this view, but plenty do. Looking at the numbers, success rates are a difficult thing to compare – the averages very much depend on call types and programme.
The success rate for lump sum calls is rather high at 29.5%. But this is because the European Research Council’s proof of concept grants, which have a high success rate, skew the picture. Without these, the success rate drops to 21.5%.
Compared to the overall current 15.9% Horizon Europe success rate, it looks like getting a lump sum grant is still easier than the Horizon average. Officially, there is no evidence the lump sum approach impacts success rates.
The types of grants for which the Commission has introduced lump sum funding probably have an impact too. Many don’t fund traditional research projects but rather coordination and support actions, which accompany traditional research projects to help out with standardisation, dissemination, awareness-raising, networking, coordination, policy dialogues and mutual learning exercises, among others. Take a look at the distribution below.
The numbers are likely change greatly in the coming months, as the roll out continues. In 2024 to date, lump sums have been introduced to two large chunks of Horizon Europe’s innovation and basic research funds, the European Innovation Council and the European Research Council.
