H2020 – Twinning

Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation

Widening actions under the Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation part of Horizon 2020 address the causes of low participation by fully exploiting the potential of Europe’s talent pool. It ensures that the benefits of an innovation-led economy are both maximised and widely distributed across the European Union. Synergies with European Structural and Investment funds are an important component.

Widening consists of three main actions, i.e. Teaming, Twinning and ERA Chairs, for which specific eligibility conditions apply. This ensures a targeted approach towards Widening Member States and Associated Countries. The Member States currently eligible for Widening support are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Twinning

The specific challenge is to enhance networking activities between the research institutions of the Widening countries and internationally-leading counterparts at EU level. Driven by the quest for excellence, research intensive institutions tend to collaborate increasingly in closed groups, producing a crowding-out effect for a large number of promising institutions. This is the challenge that a specific Twinning action will try to address.

Twinning aims at significantly strengthening a defined field of research in a university or research organisation from a Widening country by linking it with at least two internationally-leading research institutions from two different Member States or Associated Countries.

Twinning role:

1. to enhance the scientific and technological capacity of the linked institutions with a principal focus on the university or research organisation from the Widening Country;
2. to help raise the research profile of the institution from the Widening country as well as the research profile of its staff.

Twinning website.