Access
To Excellence
Access To Excellence
Access to excellence aims to ensure that all researchers, institutions, and regions across Europe can fully participate in high-quality research and innovation. By reducing disparities in research performance and strengthening capacities in less-performing regions, it helps unlock Europe’s full potential and supports a more balanced and competitive research landscape.
In the European Research Area (ERA), access to excellence focuses on improving connectivity between institutions, strengthening research and innovation capacities, and fostering collaboration across countries and sectors. It is supported by targeted measures under Horizon Europe, including Widening instruments and synergies with cohesion policy funds, helping institutions build partnerships, develop skills, and better integrate into European networks.
In the ERA Policy Agenda (2025–2027), access to excellence is addressed as a structural policy, with a focus on implementing and scaling up capacity-building measures, strengthening synergies between funding instruments, and improving coordination across governance levels. This builds on the ERA Policy Agenda 2022–2024, which introduced key tools and initiatives to reduce the innovation gap and support participation from widening countries.
Embedded ERA video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_ZWxajnr34
ERA tools and resources
Widening Participation and Spreading Excellence (Horizon Europe)
Provides targeted instruments to strengthen research and innovation capacity and participation in less-performing regions.
Teaming
Supports the creation or upgrading of centres of excellence through partnerships between leading institutions and widening countries.
Twinning
Strengthens networking and knowledge transfer between research institutions through staff exchanges, training and collaboration.
Excellence Hubs
Foster place-based innovation ecosystems by connecting academia, industry, government and society.
European Excellence Initiative (EEI)
Supports institutional cooperation and reforms to strengthen research and innovation capacity, especially in widening countries.
ERA Policy Platform
Central hub for monitoring, information and exchange on ERA actions, including access to excellence measures and progress.
RIMA – Research and Innovation and Cohesion Managing Authorities Platform
Supports coordination and synergies between Horizon Europe and cohesion policy funding.
Seal of Excellence
Quality label awarded to high-quality proposals, facilitating access to alternative funding, including regional and national programmes.
Data on Framework Programme participation (Widening data)
Provides country-level insights into participation in Horizon Europe and Widening actions, supporting evidence-based policy and capacity-building efforts.
Widening Dissemination and Exploitation Facility (WIDERA Advance)
Offers tailored expert support to help projects maximise the impact, visibility and uptake of research and innovation results.
ERA Chair Dynamics in the Widening Programme
Analyses mobility patterns and career pathways within the ERA Chair scheme, informing policymakers and future applicants.
Source: ERA Policy Platform, INSPIRING ERA
Related EU projects and initiatives
- BRITE-EU (2026-2029)
Strengthens research and innovation capacity in widening countries through skills development, institutional reform and cross-sector collaboration. - NCP_WIDERA.NET (2022-2027)
Supports National Contact Points in improving proposal quality and sharing good practices for participation in Horizon Europe Widening actions. - Pathways to Synergies (from 2023)
Supports the alignment and combination of Horizon Europe and cohesion policy funding to maximise impact and participation. - Hop-On Facility (from 2026)
Enables institutions from widening countries to join ongoing Horizon Europe projects, strengthening collaboration and integration.
