Horizon impact award

Objectives

The Commission will award on an annual basis a recognition prize to reward beneficiaries that have successfully used their research results to create value for society. The beneficiaries must be able to show proof of effective exploitation and uptake of their research results.This action aims to illustrate the wider socio-economic benefits of the EU investment in R&I and to encourage project beneficiaries to best manage and use their research results.

The award enables individuals or teams to showcase their best practices and achievements. This will encourage other beneficiaries to use and manage their results in the best way possible.It aims to create role models and inspire beneficiaries of research and innovation funding to maximise the impact of their research.

Expected results

With this award, the Commission aims to champion the uptake and use of EU funded project results, thus further boosting economic, societal, and/or policy impacts. It is expected that the award, through showcasing best practices, will create role models and inspire R&I beneficiaries to use their research results to create value for the society at large.

Indicative timetable and deadlines

• Call opening: 6 January 2022
• Deadline for submission: 8 March - 17:00 CET (Brussels)
• Evaluation: Q2 2022
• Information on evaluation results/award: Q2-Q3-Q4 2022 (TBC)

Call documents

Rules of Contest

Part B application template available in the submission tool.

Additional documents

Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022: 11. Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area

Expected Outcomes:

• To celebrate the successful uptake and use of EU funded project results, thus boosting and promoting their achieved impact.
• To showcase best practices, create role models and inspire R&I beneficiaries to use their research results to create value for the society at large.

The Commission will award on an annual basis a recognition prize to reward beneficiaries that have successfully used their research results to create value for society. The beneficiaries must be able to show proof of effective exploitation and uptake of their research results. This action aims to illustrate the wider socio-economic benefits of the EU investment in R&I and to encourage project beneficiaries to best manage and use their research results.

In particular, six winners will be selected by the evaluation jury for their achievements. The prizes are monetary and each of the six winners will receive EUR 25.000.

All applicants are required to submit letter(s) of support coming from the user community that can provide testimony on achieved impact.

Essential award criteria:

The prize will be awarded, after closure of the contest, to the contestant(s) who in the opinion of the jury best addresses the following cumulative criteria:

1. Pathway from results to societal benefits:

Applicants will need to detail how the R&I results were directly or indirectly exploited after the lifetime of the project. They will need to describe the activities that were done to ensure that the R&I results lead to societal benefits. They will need to describe the scale and the sustainability of their actions.

2. Achieved impact:

Applicants will need to demonstrate the already existing impact and created societal benefits. They will need to detail concrete examples of how their research results have benefitted the society and who are the user communities that have profited from it. The achieved impact must be already materialized. The letter of support will serve as a testimony of the described impact.

Eligibility criteria:

The contest is open to all legal entities (i.e. natural or legal persons, including international organisations) or groups of legal entities that participated as beneficiaries in FP7 or Horizon 2020 [In accordance with the Horizon Europe Rules for participation, due to the specific policy requirements, to the nature and objectives of the action, the type of legal entity is limited]. The projects must have ended by close of the contest [Refers to the end date of the project as in the Grant Agreement]. Natural persons such as ERC principal investigators or MSCA fellows and legal entities principally created by past beneficiaries for the exploitation of the project results, are also eligible.

Applicants that have already received an EU or Euratom prize cannot receive a second prize for the same activities