Portugal has already secured €179.6 million from the EU's Widening program to support research and innovation

Portugal has secured €179.6 million in funding from the European Union (EU) Widening program , with a total of 202 projects approved and 172 national coordinators, and the trend is growing. In the previous framework program (2014-2020), funding amounted to €97.7 million, and since 2021, during the new Horizon Europe framework program (2021-2027), €81.9 million has already been raised. The national success rate also increased between the two framework programs (rising from 25.7% to 39.3%), and it should be noted that it has been consistently well above the European average, which is around 14-15%. The impact on job creation has grown between the two framework programs: of the 200 scientific job opportunities created since 2014, about half have been created since 2021.

National participation in Widening has already resulted in the implementation of five Centers of Excellence in Portugal since 2014. BIOPOLIS in the area of biodiversity (BIOPOLIS Association),MIA-Portugal in the area of active aging (University of Coimbra), and the NOVA Institute for Medical Systems Biology (New University of Lisbon), iMM-CARE ( João Lobo Antunes Institute of Molecular Medicine) and The Gene Therapy CoE at the Center of Portugal (UCoimbra), which will develop projects in the area of health.

COST, one of the actions of the Widening program, benefited, on average, more than 1,500 researchers annually and attracted more than 2,000 foreign researchers to Portugal in networking and mobility actions between 2014 and 2022.

The Widening program is one of the key instruments for strengthening national innovation ecosystems, promoting partnerships of excellence at the international level and contributing to the strengthening of the European Research Area.

About the Widening Program

 The Widening program aims to support EU countries that score below the European average in terms of research and innovation, in order to improve the performance of their research and innovation systems. During the Horizon 2020 framework program (2014-2020), national participation in Widening was monitored by the National Innovation Agency (ANI). From 2021, under Horizon Europe, national participation will be monitored by the FCT.