Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
The Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area (WIDERA) programme provides targeted support for less developed countries to raise their R&I profile by improving access to excellence, as well as developing stronger R&I systems across the whole of the EU.
Initiatives aim to increase the participation and success rates of widening actors in research and innovation projects in other parts of Horizon Europe (notably in Pillars 2 and 3). It supports institutional transformation and promotes mobility of researchers and innovators.
Funding supports a wide range of activities including:
- enhancing research and innovation capacity
- supporting national reforms, facilitating brain circulation
- measures to promote excellence
- support for the creation of new collaborative networks across the EU and
- support to open established networks to applicants from widening countries*
*Widening Countries are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and any Associated Countries with the same types of R&I characteristics/performance, and the Outermost Regions.