The start of the second Horizon Europe strategic planning process was officially launched by the Commission during the Research and Innovation days 2022.

First, the Commission drafted and published the Horizon Europe Strategic Plan 2025–2027 Analysis report, providing a strong  analytical foundation for the Strategic Plan. Like its predecessor, the Strategic Plan 2025-2027 is being co-designed with input from citizens and stakeholders.

Citizens were consulted during a dedicated workshop on 1 December 2022. The workshop was organised in the context of the feedback event on the follow-up of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFE) that took place on 2 December 2022. The proposals that were developed during the CoFE were used as a basis for citizens’ discussions to outline research and innovation priorities for the last three years of the Horizon Europe programme. The outcomes of this event fed into the Strategic Plan Analysis document.

The Strategic Plan 2025-2027 was also covered by the largest ever public online consultation on European Research and Innovation Framework Programmes. The consultation featured questions on the past, present and future of research and innovation programmes and allowed stakeholders to submit position papers on the topic. The exercise was launched on 1 December 2022 and remained open until 23 February 2023. The results of the public online consultation and the position papers also fed into the Strategic Plan analysis report.

The Strategic Plan is being drafted with involvement and extensive exchanges with EU Member States and with the European Parliament, and is expected to be adopted in 2024.