It was a busy period this autumn with CERN involved in 17 submitted proposals for funding under various “INFRA” calls in the European Union’s Research Infrastructures (RI) work programme of Horizon Europe.

The RI work programme aims to advance, improve or connect Europe’s network of research infrastructures and the researchers working there.

Of the newly submitted proposals, CERN joins as a beneficiary for 11 and as a coordinator for the other six.

In total, 159 proposals were submitted under the various INFRA calls this autumn, meaning CERN is involved in over 10% of all proposals.

This is the highest number of proposals CERN has been involved in under the yearly RI calls since the Horizon Europe research funding programme kicked off in 2021. Last year, for example, CERN was involved in 10 proposals, nine as a beneficiary and one as coordinator. Of these, five were funded and one made it onto the reserve list.

The increase is down to a number of factors. One of which is the fact that several projects coordinated by CERN, such as I.FAST, AIDAinnova and Radnext, ended this year after a four-year period, and these consortia have now applied for new funding.

Another reason is CERN’s EU Project Office’s push to encourage more submissions.

Results from the proposals will come mainly in early 2026.

On a similar note, there has also been an increase in the number of submissions for funding under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)’s Doctoral Network scheme.

The Doctoral Networks programme aims to train new, highly qualified PhD candidates through interdisciplinary collaborations, involving multiple institutes and in some cases private companies.

For the latest call this year, CERN is involved in 11 proposals, two as coordinator and nine as a beneficiary. In recent years, CERN has generally been involved in just a few proposals per call.

Results from the Doctoral Networks proposals will be announced in April 2026.