Horizon Europe office in Ukraine, NRFU joined the practical training of territorial communities on the possibilities of Horizon Europe Programme and EU Missions
On January 13-14, 2026, the team of Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine, NRFU took part as speakers in the framework of a practical training dedicated to the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon Europe and EU Missions. The event was organised by the NGO Ukrainian Institute of International Policy for territorial communities of Dnipro, Kyiv, Mykolaiiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Chernivtsi and Chernihiv regions of Ukraine.
The rich programme of the two-day training included 5 modules, which covered the presentation of the structure of Horizon Europe, analysis of the needs of cities, practical cases of successful projects within the EU Missions and the possibilities of other EU programmes for local development. At the beginning of the meeting, the training participants presented their territorial communities and briefly outlined issues of interest for potential participation in the Horizon Europe Programme.
In the conditions of full-scale aggression, territorial communities in border and front-line regions faced a whole series of challenges related to the sustainability of the functioning of communal, transport, energy and other urban infrastructure, the quality of water supply and heating, the provision of other living conditions for residents and further development. In particular, communities suffer from limited information on innovative European practices and a shortage of grant funding for the implementation of the latest approaches to solving problematic issues of local development.
On the 1️-st day of the event, specialists of Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine informed the participants in detail about the tools of the Horizon Europe Programme for Ukrainian cities. Thus, Liudmyla Lisova, the Leading Officer, presented the general structure of the Programme, its pillars and components, features of specific tools, algorithms for finding partners and submitting grant applications. Leading Officer Vladyslav Mykhailenko spoke about the Work Programme 2026-2027, the concept of EU Missions and open calls within the EU Mission “Adaptation to climate change”. And the topic of Maksym Kolisnyk’s speech, the Leading Officer, was the EU Mission “Climate-neutral and smart cities», which provides for joint participation in the projects of local self-government bodies, citizens, business, investors, regional and central authorities.
For her part, Nataliia Didenko, the Deputy Head of Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine, conducted a tour of the specialised tool of the European Union – Funding and Tenders Portal, which is the primary source of information about current opportunities and a reference point for participation in the Programme. Among other things, the speaker provided information on the Portal, search and selection of calls, development of ideas, approaches to creating a consortium. The participants of the training exchanged views on the prospects for the preparation of grant applications and received answers to key questions about the Programme.
On the 2-nd day of the training, 2 projects within the EU Missions «Adaptation to climate change» and «Cities», which were successfully implemented by Ukrainian organisations, were presented to participants: SUN4Ukraine and U_CAN. In addition, Olesia Skliarenko, who is the NCP of the Programme in the field of activity “New European Bauhaus R&I” (NEB), presented this initiative, which is aimed at supporting projects for the aesthetic, sustainable and inclusive transformation of the built environment of neighborhoods, which in turn affects the health and well-being of individuals and communities. The goal is to make their residents partners of changes focused on the implementation of the Clean Industrial Deal and the European Green Deal.
