Belgian university KU Leuven, which has received grants totalling €90.951 million, tops the list of European universities receiving the most funding from Horizon Europe in 2023. It is followed by the University of Copenhagen with €90.067 million and the University of Ghent with €75.009 million – University World News informed.
Ten countries are represented on the list. Four universities are in the Netherlands, three each in Belgium and Denmark, Ireland, Israel, Israel, Italy and Norway have two each, and Sweden, Germany and Finland have one each. The total value of the grants is €1.118 billion. Universities in the UK and Switzerland are not represented on the 2023 list as they are not participating in the programme due to separate political disagreements with the EU.
On 7 December 2023, KU Leuven University’s website announced that it had been awarded top grant recipient status among higher education institutions under the Horizon Europe programme, the EU’s largest research and innovation initiative.
“Almost three years into Horizon Europe, KU Leuven is the top grant recipient among higher education institutions in the largest EU framework programme for research and innovation to date. Netting more than €170 million for 284 projects, the university currently takes the lead in both the amount of funding and the number of grant agreements signed,” read the report.
KU Leuven draws most of its Horizon Europe funding from European Research Council grants and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) funding in Pillar I Excellent Science.
“Our researchers have also secured a significant amount of funding for collaborative projects in the thematic clusters of Pillar II [Global challenges and European industrial competitiveness]. KU Leuven coordinates 120 projects (42.3%) – including a quarter of the multi-partner projects it is involved in – and participates in 164 projects (57.7%) as beneficiary,” read the report.
Rector Luc Sels said that Flemish universities can utilise the resources of international foundations, foreign sponsors or foundations and as a result improve regional research and educational structure and outcomes, adding “Flanders has some absolute gems in its hands, but it is important that Flanders politically ensures that these gems keep their lustre.”
According to University World News, Ghent University is among the strongest performers in the Horizon rankings.
In the first Horizon Europe calls, we have already secured 65 per cent of our total EC contribution obtained in Horizon 2020, Dieter De Bruyn, a Ghent University senior policy adviser (rector’s office), said.
According to the university, Ghent University won a record 20 grants in the 2022 ERC competitions, beating all other European universities. To date, Ghent University has received 145 ERC grants and 27 concept grants, led by 128 principal investigators.
In 2019, Ghent University’s Board of Governors made a strategic decision to invest in additional support for the preparation and follow-up of European research projects. In 2020, the EU central team hired 14 additional staff (doubling the staff) to assist researchers wishing to initiate and coordinate European projects, both pre-grant and post-grant.
Doris Alexander, associate director of European engagement at Trinity College Dublin, told University World News that the institution’s success in the Horizon Europe programme (ranked 21st in 2023 with €36.8 million in grants) was the result of “excellent researchers with excellent research projects, supported along the way by excellent professional research management staff.”
Trinity College Dublin has a long history of success in securing funding from the ERC and MSCA programmes and this will continue to be important, she said.
Professor Erik Renström, vice-chancellor of Lund University, which came fifth in the list of the top 21 universities (receiving €63.3 million), told University World News that the “immediate explanation” for the university’s success is that “more researchers at Lund University have submitted great proposals”.
“Fundamental is that Lund University has a number of experienced principal investigators with networks and the willingness to share these with up-and-coming junior colleagues.”
Professor Anne Portaankorva, Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Helsinki (12th out of 21 with funding of €46 million), said the institution’s success was “an implication of the high-level, competitive research of the University of Helsinki. Thanks go to our excellent researchers. At the same time, I would like to emphasise that it has been our goal to increase the amount of international research funding and support the researchers to be successful.”
Massimo Busuoli, who heads the Brussels office of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), told University World News that it is “extremely pleasant to see NTNU in the top 21 European universities [at 19th place with €39.6 million] in Horizon Europe as this outcome positively reflects the huge effort that the university has put in place since 2016 in strengthening its presence and contribution in the ERA.”
It must be underlined that in 2016 NTNU was in the 46th position, so it is extremely positive to notice such a great improvement.
Dan Andre, former representative of Vinnova, a Swedish innovation agency based in Belgium, and current Brussels representative of the University Alliance Stockholm Trio, consisting of Karolinska Institutet, KTH and Stockholm University, told University World News:
Sweden has around 50 universities and higher education institutions which is much higher than many smaller countries. Many of the universities highest in ranking in Horizon Europe are much larger than KI, KTH and SU. If you compare with the number of full-time researchers, for example, KTH ranks one of the highest participants in Horizon Europe together with Weissman Institute in Israel. The trio together is the second highest university in Horizon Europe after Leuven.
Kurt Deketelaer, secretary general of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), told University World News that he was pleased with the results of Horizon Europe and the performance of KU Leuven, where he is a professor of environmental law.
He said that while the absence of the UK and Switzerland (eight of which are LERU members) from the list was notable, he said, LERU “encourages all our members to pick up co-operation with the UK again and hopefully also soon with Switzerland. So I expect them to do much better again in the following years.”
“The main reason for the success of these winners is of course the strategic choice to recruit excellent researchers and participate selectively in international partnerships assisted by an effective research support office for proposal writing,” Smits said.
