Hop-on facility

Expected Outcome:

The Hop-on Facility allows for legal entities from low R&I performing countries to join already funded Horizon Pillar II ‘main’ Work Programme and EIC Pathfinder collaborative R&I actions, subject to the agreement of the respective consortium and provided that legal entities from such countries are not yet participating as beneficiary, associated partner, or affiliated entity. The scheme aims to improve the inclusiveness of Horizon Europe. Selected consortia will be invited to submit a grant agreement amendment request of the eligible already funded action.

Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• At system level, it mobilises excellence in the Widening countries, increases visibility of the beneficiaries from the widening countries, improves knowledge circulation, and reduces lack of participation of the widening countries in specific thematic domains;
• At consortium level, it opens up established networks to new connections and partnerships, improves research excellence of the Widening country’s institutions in specific fields, enlarges outreach of the participants’ R&I actions and provides access to new talent pools;
• At the level of the Widening beneficiary, new competencies and skills for working in transnational projects including research management and dissemination and exploitation are acquired.

Scope:

The Hop-on Facility integrates one additional beneficiary from a Widening country to an ongoing project under Pillar 2 or the EIC pathfinder scheme who contributes a relevant task, work package or another visible and distinguishable activity.

Applications must demonstrate the R&I added value of the new beneficiary for the eligible already selected action. The proposal should include a detailed description of the profile of the new beneficiary and its R&I role and complementarity in the existing project.

The additional beneficiary and activities should be presented in a dedicated proposal template with the Description of the Action (DoA) of the ongoing action uploaded as an annex. In case of a successful evaluation, the consortia (coordinator) of the eligible already funded action (i.e. relevant existing grant agreement) will be invited to submit an amendment request for accession of the Widening beneficiary, modification of the description of the action. If budget is reserved for the coordinator, the proposal should justify the amounts in terms of integration efforts for the new participant.