Prioritization in funding portfolios – Analysis of EU funding programmes and their scientific topics, and a comparison with third-country scientific foci: Working paper supporting the interim evaluation of Horizon Europe (support study on excellent science)

This working paper aims to provide the reader with information on the topical focus of the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, comparing the results with the topical focus at both national and regional levels worldwide. We find that there is a partial disconnect between the topics that were funded through the framework programme and the topics for which the publication productivity was high for most of some of the non-European comparator countries and regions. We do observe that, when comparing topics researched in the EU-28, there is a similar distribution of Horizon 2020 funded topics across the top topics researched by the EU-28 countries (nationally). We conclude that the Framework Programme funding is in line with what peers are researching and funding in Europe asa a whole. As such Horizon 2020 funding has enhanced and strengthened those subject areas and topics in which European countries, and their R&I systems, have proven expertise, and the funding has then served to maintain that expertise.