On 19 November 2021, the Council of Ministers of the European Union adopted a regulation (Single Basic Act) for the establishment of nine Joint Undertakings (JUs) under Horizon Europe. The European Union, Member States and/or the private sector jointly implement these European Research and Innovation Partnerships. The partnerships, established as European Union bodies for a duration until 31 December 2031, will have a budget of approximately €10 billion until 2027 from the Horizon Europe programme, complemented by an equal amount from the participating partners.
 
Calls for proposals under the Joint Undertakings must be published by 31 December 2027 at the latest. However, they should have the possibility to publish calls until 31 December 2028 in duly justified cases and subject to the availability of remaining funds from the 2021-2027 EU budget.
 
The following partnerships have been adopted:

The regulation starts with the recitals, which justify the enacting terms of the legal act. This is followed by the first title, which determines, among other things, the functioning of the Joint Undertakings, such as objectives and tasks, partners and contributions, as well as the organisation and governance of the undertakings, e.g. Administrative Board, Executive Director or Advisory Bodies.
Furthermore, financial and operational provisions, personnel, liability issues, dispute resolution, etc. are regulated. The second title of the regulation then covers the respective special provisions of the individual companies. The amount of funding to be contributed by the participating partners is also determined there.
 
The regulation will enter into force with its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Individual partnerships are planning to launch their first calls for proposals as early as December 2021. The calls for proposals of the Joint Undertakings will also be published on the Commission’s Funding & Tenders Portal.
 
Further information:

Another institutional partnership, based on Article 185 TFEU, was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council as a Joint Undertaking between the Union and the Member States in the field of metrology. The Union and Member States foresee a joint budget of more than €700 million for this public-public partnership.