European funding

Support for Scottish businesses and organisations  

We can help you access services that let you more easily navigate complex European funding programmes. This will make it easier to decide which programme fits your project idea.

We’ll also help you find suitable partners through our National Contact Point and European networks.  

Scottish Enterprise hosts Scottish Contact Points for both Horizon Europe and the Peace Plus Programme for Ireland and Northern Ireland. We also have a dedicated Scottish European Green Energy team which helps organisations access low carbon funding.  

These services are open to Scottish-based organisations or companies.   

Support for Horizon Europe funding  

Horizon Europe is the EU’s main funding programme for research and innovation, with a budget of €95.5 billion Euros until 2027. It’s open to all types of organisations. 

If you’re a UK-based researcher or innovator, you can apply to most Horizon Europe funding opportunities on the same terms as EU-based applicants.  

Horizon Europe offers significant opportunity for Scottish businesses to develop world-class innovative technologies in collaboration with partners across Europe. Horizon Europe funding is offered through a series of funding calls, which are announced periodically.  

UK Horizon Guarantee 

The UK Horizon Guarantee is currently in place to ensure that eligible UK applicants who have successfully been evaluated by the European Commission have access to funding, whilst the UK Government continues its application to become an Associate to Horizon Europe.  

Our Scottish Contact Point will be happy to advise companies going through the application process with the use of the UK Guarantee to underwrite Horizon Europe funding.  

Find guidance on how to apply for the guarantee on the UKRI website.

Support for Peace Plus funding

Peace Plus is an EU-UK programme aimed at ensuring peace and prosperity across Northern Ireland and the border counties of Ireland. It has a budget of just over €1 billion Euros until 2027.

Scotland can participate as part of what is known as a ‘functional area’. This means, the Peace Plus programme geography can be flexible, depending on the topic concerned. It’s therefore possible for Scottish partners to get involved by linking to partners within the core programme area.  

Scotland was previously part of an EU cross-border programme with this region, with which it still has many historical economic and cultural ties for collaboration.  

Support for low carbon funding

The Scottish European Green Energy Centre (SEGEC) helps attract European funding to Scotland in the critical growth areas of energy and low carbon by supporting businesses and key stakeholders. A key focus of the SEGEC service is Horizon Europe. 

SEGEC can help your business: 

• Navigate the European funding landscape
• Identify partners 
• Strengthen your funding applications 
• Increase your application success rates 
• Increase international collaboration 

If you're considering applying to upcoming Horizon Europe calls in the low carbon space, SEGEC can help you identify appropriate calls and partners and develop your bid. 

Find out how SEGEC can help your business find and apply for funding