Horizon Europe Work Programme 2026-2027: what opens when

The Horizon Europe work programme 2026-2027 is the document that turns the programme’s budget into concrete topics, each with a code, a budget, a deadline and a list of expected outcomes. Right now 334 topics from it are live in the EU’s own data: 91 open for submission and 243 announced with a future opening date. The rest of this page shows which ones open when, so you can plan a proposal months ahead instead of finding a topic 3 weeks before it closes.

How much of the 2026-2027 work programme is still ahead?

Two numbers stand out. 22 topics run in two stages, with a short first proposal and a full one months later, and 225 of the 334 pay a lump sum instead of reimbursing actual costs. Both change how you write and plan, so check the funding model on the call page before you start.

These counts come from the Funding & Tenders Portal data that Yellow Grant reads 3 times a day, the same data behind the full list of Horizon Europe calls. Closed topics drop out at every update.

What does the work programme contain?

The Commission publishes the 2026-2027 work programme as separate parts on its Horizon Europe work programmes page. The list there names a general introduction, MSCA, Infrastructures, Cluster 1 to Cluster 6, European Innovation Ecosystems, WIDERA, EU Missions, NEB, horizontal activities and the general annexes (source).

Three things sit outside it. The European Research Council (ERC), the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the Joint Research Centre run under other work programmes, and the same page says the EIT and several partnerships have separate programming documents. If you are after an ERC grant or EIC funding for a startup, the dates in this guide do not apply to you.

Every topic code tells you which part it belongs to. In HORIZON-CL5-2026-11-D3-06, the second block is the part (CL5), then comes the year of the call, and the rest numbers the call and the topic.

Which parts have the most live topics?

Another 29 live topics carry the codes BRIDGING, CID, NATURE, RAISE. They come from the horizontal activities and newer call families of the same programme, and each one has its own page in the data.

Budgets are the indicative totals the Commission gives per topic. A topic with a large budget funds several projects, so divide by the expected number of grants on the call page to see what one project gets.

What opens when?

The table below groups every announced topic by the month it opens for submission. In the live data, the first deadline falls 4 months after the opening date at the median (between 2 and 8 months across all topics), so the opening month is the latest point to have your consortium and your concept ready.

Read it from the top. The months with the most topics are the months when every research office in Europe is busy at the same time, and partners get harder to recruit. Starting a consortium 2 months before the opening date gives you first pick.

Which open topics should you look at first?

Three real topics from the current data show the range:

• Closest deadline: HORIZON-CL3-2026-01-SSRI-04 closes on 5 November 2026. Unless your proposal is already drafted, skip it and plan for a later topic.
• Largest budget open now: HORIZON-MSCA-2026-DN-01-01, €1.88 billion in total, deadline 24 November 2026.
• Two-stage example: HORIZON-CL4-2027-02-DIGITAL-EMERGING-52-two-stage, first stage 2 February 2027, second stage 2 September 2027. The full proposal is due at the second deadline.

How do you turn the work programme into a proposal plan?

1. Find your part. Pick the cluster or part that matches your field, then open its PDF on the Commission’s work programme page.
2. Shortlist 3 to 5 topics. Read the expected outcomes and the scope of each topic. They describe what the Commission wants funded projects to achieve, so a topic whose outcomes you cannot deliver is the wrong topic.
3. Note the action type and funding model. Research and Innovation Action, Innovation Action and Coordination and Support Action fund different kinds of work, and the call page shows whether the topic pays a lump sum or reimburses actual costs.
4. Put the opening date and the deadline in your calendar. Every call page on Yellow Grant has a calendar file with the exact deadline.
5. Build the consortium before the opening date. Collaborative topics bring together partners from several countries, and good partners commit to the first credible consortium that asks them.
6. Submit early, then improve. The Online Manual says you can submit as many times as you want before the deadline and each version replaces the previous one. It also advises submitting at least 48 hours before the deadline (source).

What changes between the 2026 and the 2027 calls?

The topic code carries the call year. Topics coded 2026 are the first wave of this work programme, and 40 of them are still live. Topics coded 2027 make up the bulk of what is live now: 294 of the 334 live topics. The 2027 calls are where planning time pays off, because 243 topics have not opened yet.

Horizon Europe as a whole has an indicative budget of EUR 93.5 billion for 2021 to 2027, according to the Commission’s programme page (source). For the period after that, the Commission has proposed a successor programme for 2028 to 2034 with a budget of €175 billion.

Keep the dates on your own site

Research offices, National Contact Points and incubators keep “open calls” pages that go stale within weeks. The free deadlines widget shows the live Horizon Europe topics on your site, filtered by programme or theme, and updates itself 3 times a day.

Source of all call data: EU Funding & Tenders Portal, © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Counts by Yellow Grant.