Experts of Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine continue to inform the public about participation opportunities of the Horizon Europe
Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine, NRFU, continues a series of information and training events for anyone interested in participating in the Horizon Europe Programme. On March 24, 2026, a roundtable “Opportunities under the Horizon Europe Programme in 2026: open calls and participation tools” took place in Kyiv. The event brought together representatives of the higher education institutions, research organisations, government bodies, business sector and other stakeholders who are going to join the Programme.
This is the second event organised by the Office this year, combining theoretical knowledge with practical elements. The Office’s experts not only provided information on the Programme’s opportunities but also conducted a step-by-step analysis of a specific call for proposals, explained the structure of a project proposal for it, demonstrated how to use artificial intelligence when drafting a grant application, and explained how to calculate the budget correctly, taking into account the updated forms and key changes introduced in 2026-2027.
Olga Polotska, Executive Director of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine, opened the event with a welcoming speech. Participants were also greeted by Hryhorii Mozolevych, Director General of the Directorate for Science Development at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and Yehor Pyvovarov, Policy Officer for Research and Innovation at the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
During the theoretical part of the session, participants were presented with statistics on the participation of Ukrainian organisations in Horizon Europe calls, as well as the results of the activities of Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine, which is also an EU project. In addition, current opportunities for applicants and the main innovations in the work programmes for 2026-2027 were outlined.
The practical part of the event was a key element of the programme. It was structured around the project proposal for the Cluster 5 call: Economics of climate change and cost of inaction (HORIZON-CL5-2026-07-D1-03). Under the guidance of the Office’s specialists, participants analysed the structure of the application in detail, the logic behind the development of its content, and worked through approaches to preparing the financial component, in particular the budget.
For more effective work, participants were divided into four groups, each of them worked on specific aspects of preparing the project proposal. This format allowed participants to work as closely as possible to the real conditions of preparing an application, facilitated active interaction between participants, and led to a deeper understanding of the call requirements.
The event caused considerable interest among the target audience – the number of people wishing to take part exceeded the technical capacity for the practical session. Consequently, the organisers had to close the registration form earlier than planned, as effective practical tasks required working in small groups. Given the high level of interest in the event in this particular format, the Office plans to continue holding similar round-table discussions and training sessions to enable as many participants as possible to acquire practical skills in preparing project proposals.
Holding such events helps to improve the quality of project proposals submitted by Ukrainian organisations and strengthen their competitiveness within the Horizon Europe Programme. Summing up the roundtable, Igor Taranov, Head of Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine, NRFU, thanked everyone for their active participation, emphasising the importance of raising awareness of the Programme.
