The European science and research fund, Horizon 2020, is set to be reduced by €9bn according to the latest budget agreements.

European Council leaders are meeting to finalize the EU budget for the next seven years in Brussels today. Negotiations have just restarted and final figures are expected shortly.

Cuts in the research budget were anticipated as early as September 2012 but as the final hours of discussions begin, this now seems inevitable. ScienceCalling.com has analysed the latest figures released in the early hours of the morning and has found that the Horizon 2020 budget could be cut by over €9bn.

The science programme’s budget is part of the ‘Competitiveness for Growth and Jobs’ section which has been given a revised budget of €125.7bn. Horizon 2020 originally had a budget of €79.3bn over seven years but its new budget could be €70.3bn or lower.

Update 9.40pm: Final conclusions have been announced – see ScienceCalling.com update: Horizon 2020 budget cut by over 12%

This graph was compiled using figures obtained from draft conclusions issued today and in the past number of months. Horizon 2020 is not mentioned directly by these documents but below are the figures compiled by ScienceCalling.com.

Note: All figures are using 2011 as the reference year (constant 2011 prices). The reduction is based on the fact that the remaining funds (when all projects mentioned are subtracted) are given to Horizon 2020 and other unnamed projects in the ratio 75.8 : 24.2. This ratio was obtained using the original Horizon 2020 budget of €79.2bn. Until a final budget breakdown is released, it will be unclear the exact reduction to the Horizon 2020 budget.

Source Documents

• Draft conclusions 13 Nov 2012 – PDF
• Draft conclusions 23 Nov 2012 – PDF [No longer online]
• Draft conclusions 08 Feb 2013 – PDF

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• 08 Feb 2013 – Horizon 2020 budget cut by over 12%
• 06 Dec 2012 – Budget 2013 Breakdown: Science