Joint statement: Call for widely spread Horizon Europe call deadlines respecting ERA engagements towards research managers

In a joint statement released today, CESAER and The Guild member universities call on the European Commission and the member states to ensure widely spread and predictable call deadlines of Research and Innovation (R&I) Framework Programmes. They also urge an adjustment in the timing of these call deadlines to further support the professionalisation of research management, thereby enhancing European excellence and competitiveness.
10th June 2025
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In a joint statement released today, CESAER and The Guild member universities call on the European Commission and the member states to ensure widely spread and predictable call deadlines of Research and Innovation (R&I) Framework Programmes. They also urge an adjustment in the timing of these call deadlines to further support the professionalisation of research management, thereby enhancing European excellence and competitiveness.

Researchers, innovators, and research managers play a crucial role in strengthening the EU's competitiveness and securing its prosperity through excellent R&I. However, the 2025 Horizon Europe call deadlines, clustered in September due to delays in finalising the work programme and shifting policy priorities, are placing undue strain on research managers across Europe.

Effective collaboration between researchers and skilled research managers leads to strong, well-targeted proposals and effective project management. This requires time and a manageable workload throughout the year. The compressed timeline is forcing Research Support Offices to scale back services, limiting their capacity to help prepare and implement high-quality projects.

To address this, CESAER and The Guild call on the European Commission and the EU member states to ensure widely spread and predictable call deadlines, and pilot adjustments in the timing of call deadlines to further support researchers, innovators and research managers in delivering excellent research and innovation, thereby contributing to European excellence and competitiveness.

Jan Palmowski, Secretary General of The Guild:

“Call deadlines need to support excellence. With only one call deadline for most proposals, we run the real risk of privileging institutions with large research support offices that may be able to adjust, at the expense of smaller institutions without the capacity to support all excellent researchers wishing to apply. It’s key to the programme’s excellence principle that all institutions, whatever their location and size, can give their researchers the best support so that researchers can focus on presenting their best ideas in their application. For that, spread-out deadlines are essential.”

Mattias Björnmalm, Secretary General of CESAER:

"Excellence in European research and innovation depends not only on scientific brilliance, but on the people that enable it. Universities are at the forefront of addressing society’s biggest challenges, and they rely on skilled research managers, researchers and innovators to translate potential into impact. Predictable and well-distributed Horizon Europe call deadlines are essential to empower this collaboration and sustain Europe’s global leadership in science and technology."

Wendy Sonneveld, Senior Policy Advisor European Affairs at Ghent University and Co-Chair of the CESAER Task Force Sustainable Funding:

“The ERA Action on the professionalisation of the research management profession in both ERA Policy Agenda’s is a very much welcomed initiative. The engagement of the European Commission and many member states with this ERA Action creates positive impact at the work floor for research managers in the first place, but also for researchers and innovators, benefitting from ever stronger proposal and project support services. Let us work together, respect engagements taken, and ensure, year after year, widely spread and predictable call deadlines in Framework Programmes for R&I from 2026 onwards, irrespective of European elections.”

For more information, contact our Information & Communication Officer Justine Moynat.

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